An Anthropologist's Arrival: A Memoir

Around the World

204 Around the World i had an offer from the University of Denver. I recall Arnie Withers made me the offer.* But I had never had any contact with him previously. I believe Marie Wormington engineered it, as she was based in Denver and she was such a builder. I accepted the offer. I crawled out from Chicago and went to Denver. I wanted to go to Denver, though. I wanted the contact with students, for one thing. I hadn’t had much contact with intelligent students. I’d had the Indians, who were a different kind of audience, and I’d had my bureau colleagues, who didn’t care about my sort of stuff at all. They cared about the practical side of Indian service: “Can we get them food? Can we get clothes?” But what do they think? They didn’t care about that. So it was quite a new atmosphere I sought, and I was very interested to try it. When I got to DU, such a change! Like getting out of Champagne and into milk! It was all too wholesome. Everybody was nice. I liked all the DU people, but I had to begin so low with anthropology, begin at almost nothing and take them a few steps and that was enough. That’s as far as they wanted to go.† * Arnold Withers (1916–1993) attended Columbia University in the 1940s after serving in the Army Signal Corps during the war. He joined the University of Denver faculty in 1947 and remained there until his retirement in 1976. His contributions were archaeological and included extensive work for the Smithsonian Institution’s River Basin Survey. See: Holt, Laura. 1994. Arnold Withers. Anthropology News 35(6):73. † However, in at least one case, Underhill likely made a difference in the life of a young woman who would become a professional anthropologist. Cynthia Irwin-Williams grew up in Denver and in high school started an archaeology club. For her advisors, she recruited H. Marie Wormington, Herbert Dick, and Underhill. Irwin-Williams would go on to an impressive career in the field. Irwin-Williams once said, “That I ever became an anthropologist is largely due to the influence of Dr. Ruth Murray Underhill throughout my life. . . . Almost from the beginning she has been a kind of beacon— lighting up the wonderful world of the quest for man’s nature.” Irwin-Williams, Cynthia. 1983. SWAA Distinguished Scholarly Award for 1983 Presented to Dr. Ruth Around the World 205 There weren’t many people in anthropology; it was an awfully small department. Nobody knew what anthropology was, and they didn’t really care. They liked the nice big word, they liked to throw it around, and I got elected to all sorts of committees because they needed an anthropologist. But what I had to give them, they didn’t want to hear. That was just boring and out of their picture. I was astonished at the lack of information white Americans have about Indians. So I said to myself, “All right, I’ll just put all my time into writing.” I built a charming little cottage for myself in Denver and set down to write. I was then nearly seventy years old and thought I would die pretty soon. I thought, “This will be about the end of the time I have on the earth. I’ll take it in writing, getting what I know on paper so it’s not lost.” I thought that was enough. Then, I went on living. Time went past, you see. It was a surprise. It’s ridiculous. I really didn’t suppose I’d live this long. Murray Underhill. SWAA News 22(2/3): 17–18. Pg. 18. See also: Cordell, Linda S. 1993. Women Archaeologists in the Southwest. In Hidden Scholars: Women Anthropologists and the Native American Southwest. N. J. Parezo, ed. Pp. 202–220. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. Pg. 217. Figure 30. Anthropologists Clara Lee Tanner, H. Marie Wormington , and Ruth, 1980. Becoming an anthroPologist 206 • One of the first things I wrote was Red Man’s America.* I didn’t believe there was any good textbook on American Indians, and so I wanted to write one.† The book led to a television program of the same name, from 1957 to 1958. I enjoyed it very much indeed. Of course, the shows covered material I knew. I didn’t...