Their Own Frontier: Women Intellectuals Re-Visioning the American West

5. Marjorie Ferguson Lambert: Including American Indians and Hispanic Peoples in Southwestern Anthropology

5 marjorie ferguson lambert Including American Indians and Hispanic Peoples in Southwestern Anthropology Shelby Tisdale in a brilliant career spanning more than six decades, Marjorie Ferguson Lambert left her imprint on southwestern anthropology , archaeology, and history.1 She devoted her life to the study and advancement of our understanding of the presence of humans upon the landscape of the American Southwest in the past, as well as to the preservation of the arts and cultures of the living Native Americans and Hispanic peoples of New Mexico. She became a professional archaeologist and museum curator at a time when relatively few women were establishing full-time careers in either profession. When Marjorie joined the Museum of New Mexico staff in 1937, she was well on her way to being an established southwestern archaeologist and was, according to Cynthia Irwin-Williams, “one of the first women to occupy a major curatorial position in the country.”2 Marjorie authored almost two hundred articles for American Antiquity, El Palacio, New Mexico Anthropologist, and New Mexico Magazine; two monographs for the School of American Research; and several review articles and forewords to books. In addition to her numerous publications, as Barbara Babcock and Nancy Parezo inform us, she gave “countless lectures and organized many exhibits introducing New Mexico’s Indian and Hispanic peoples to the general public.”3 It was important to Marjorie that anthropology and archaeology be accessible to the general public. Unfortunately, this form of popularizing of the discipline was generally undervalued in academia, and those who attempted to introduce anthro7 . (Opposite Top) Marjorie Ferguson (top left) while instructor and supervisor of a summer archaeology class at New Mexico Normal School (now New Mexico Highlands University ) at Tecolote Ruin la 296 in 1932. She is pictured with her field crew, which included Rose and Joe Aguilar of Santo Domingo Pueblo. Courtesy of Marjorie Lambert Collection, Archives , Laboratory of Anthropology, Museum of Indian Arts & Culture, Santa Fe nm. 8. (Opposite Bottom) Marjorie Ferguson Lambert (left) and her husband, Jack Lambert, with Helen Cordero of Cochiti Pueblo at the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, ca. 1980. Marjorie Lambert Collection, Archives, Laboratory of Anthropology, Museum of Indian Arts & Culture, Santa Fe nm. 184 Tisdale pology to a nonprofessional audience generally tended to be marginalized by their colleagues and the discipline as a whole.4 Marjorie’s life experiences were intricately involved with the development of southwestern archaeology and its supporting institutions, including the University of New Mexico, the School of American Research , and the Museum of New Mexico. The choices Marjorie made throughout her career were influenced early on by an intriguing cast of characters, in particular, Edgar L. Hewett, Sylvanus G. Morley, Alfred V. Kidder, Kenneth Chapman, and Harry P. Mera. Marjorie always had the deepest respect for and emotional attachments to the numerous Native Americans and Hispanics she knew and worked with throughout her career, many of whom became lifelong friends. These friendships were strengthened through her interest in and concern for the preservation of their arts and cultural traditions . Her active involvement in the Indian Arts Fund, the New Mexico Association on Indian Affairs (now the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts, or swaia), the annual Santa Fe Indian Market, the Spanish Colonial Society, and the Spanish Market also brought her into contact with numerous artists and their supporters and patrons. One of the early pioneers of ethnohistorical and ethnoarchaeological techniques, Marjorie hired American Indian and Hispanic men as crew members on her excavations. She also consulted them about her findings and incorporated their oral traditions and histories into her analyses and interpretations of the past. Her approach was much different from that of other archaeologists at the time. Since the beginning of American archaeology as a discipline, the relationship between archaeologists and American Indians has been essentially one-sided. Archaeologists study the past, and in the Southwest they study the past of present-day Native peoples. Unfortunately, the opinions and oral traditions of these living Native peoples were often overlooked by archaeologists in their interpretations of the past.5 Only in the past two decades has American archaeology recognized the importance of including American Indians in a dialogue about the past, something that Marjorie had been doing from the beginning. Throughout her career Marjorie had to overcome and maneuver around many obstacles that would have discouraged—and probably marjorie ferguson lambert 185 did discourage—many young women from pursuing...