Portrait of Frank Hamilton Cushing by Thomas Eakins, 1895

Occupation: Curator-Ethnological Department of the National Museum, Washington D.C

Frank Hamilton Cushing began to collect relics, fossils and minerals when eight years old, and continued his researches after his father had removed to Medina, New York in 1870, in a field of rich material. He extended his investigations to the ancient fortifications, burial grounds and camp sites of Madison and Onondaga Counties. He entered Cornell University in 1875, but devoted his time to assisting Dr. Charles Rau in preparing the Indian collections of the National Museum for the Centennial Exposition and was Curator of the entire collection throughout the Exhibition, after which he became Curator of the Ethnological Department of the National Museum in Washington, D.C. In 1879, he joined Maj. J. W. Powell, U.S.A., in his expedition to New Mexico, as Assistant of the United States Bureau of Ethnology of the Smithsonian Institute. Mr. Cushing, at his own request, remained with the Zuni Indians, adopting their dress, customs and habits, and in this way for three years studied their history and language. In his second year's sojourn, he was formally adopted by the tribe and initiated with the sacred "Priesthood of the Bow". In 1882, he escorted a party of six Zunis to the Atlantic Ocean or "Ocean of Sunrise", to carry its waters to their temple in the Pueblos. Two of the natives remained with him in Washington during the summer and aided him in preparing his contributions to the Bureau of Ethnology on Zuni Fetiches. He returned to his Indian friends in 1882. Failing in health obliged him to return to the East, and in 1884, accompanied by three Indians to aid him in the preparation of the Dictionary and Grammar of the Zuni language, and in translating myth stories, songs and rituals, he settled in Washington. From 1886 to 1888, Mr. Cushing organized and conducted archeologic research in the Salado and Gila Valleys in Arizona, in charge of the Hemenway Southwestern Archeological Expedition. In 1895, he went to make investigations in Florida. The discoveries made by him on this expedition were of great interest and of profound importance in American archeology, and at his death he had nearly finished a voluminous report on his discoveries.

Frank Hamilton Cushing (1857-1900)
A pioneer ethnologist whose work at Zuni Pueblo made him one of the most important white observers of Native American culture in the nineteenth century, Frank Hamilton Cushing was, in his methods and thinking, a forerunner of anthropologists in our own century.

Cushing was born July 22, 1857, in the town of Northeast, in Pennsylvania's Erie county. In 1870 the Cushings moved to western New York, where their thirteen-year-old son quickly began to pursue the interests which would mark his adult life. Somewhat socially awkward and bookish, he was allowed to read on his own and to wander the nearby forests at will. He soon became fascinated by the Indian artifacts nearby, and curiosity drove him to experiment with making arrowheads. At age fifteen, using the bone handle of an old toothbrush and some discarded flint, he succeeded in making an arrowhead indistinguishable from those thousands of years old. This accomplishment attracted the interest of the American ethnological profession, and young Cushing published his first scientific paper in 1874 at age seventeen.

Cushing's career advanced quickly after this early start. In 1875 he briefly enrolled at Cornell University, where his required coursework paled in interest next to the preparation of an exhibition of Indian artifacts. He was soon made curator of the exhibit. That achievement and his earlier publication caught the attention of the Smithsonian Institution, whose director made him, at nineteen years of age, curator of the ethnological department of the National Museum in Washington, D.C. In the nation's capital Cushing found himself at the intellectual heart of American ethnology, and John Wesley Powell, explorer and head of the newly-formed Bureau of American Ethnology, took a particular interest in his intellectual promise.

In 1879, Powell chose Cushing to accompany him on an expedition to New Mexico, where the group spent several months observing the Zuni Pueblo. Fascinated by the wealth of living material before his eyes, Cushing gained permission to stay behind for more study. He decided to attempt to live among the Zuni as much as possible, and brazenly moved into one of the rooms of a Zuni leader. After several months, his inquisitive sketching of Zuni ceremonies led to several confrontations with angry residents. According to Cushing's account, it was only his brandishing of a knife which saved his life and earned him the respect of much of the town.

After the confrontation, Cushing was able to live much more casually among the Zuni and thus to acquaint himself with their daily lives, material culture and even some of their most secret religious ceremonies. For example, in 1881, the second year of his residence, he was initiated into the secret "Priesthood of the Bow." Perhaps the secret to his remarkable acceptance by the Zuni was his willingness to participate in their culture, by giving as well as receiving. Cushing would tell European and American folk tales, for example, as he asked the Zuni to tell him their own myths. And in 1882, he took a small group of Zuni leaders on a tour of the United States, showing them his culture as they had shown him their own.

The Zuni received enormous attention from the media and the Eastern elite during their tour, which was typical of the spectacle mounted whenever Indians visited "civilized" society. But Cushing's relationship with the Zuni made this visit extraordinary. The trip was also important to Cushing's personal life, as he was married to Washington D.C. resident Emily Tennison on July 10, 1882.

Cushing returned to the Zuni pueblo for more study in late 1882, but frequent illnesses, his spending of much government money, and his controversial involvement in a Zuni-Navajo clash led the Bureau of Ethnology to call him back to Washington in 1884. He continued his scholarly work on the Zuni, however, writing extensively about their material culture, language, and folklore. In 1886 he gained the backing of a wealthy New York patron, which enabled him to return to New Mexico, but ill health at first impeded, then ultimately ended, this final research excursion.

Besides his studies of the Zuni, the other major projects of Cushing's career were the discovery of rich archeological troves yielding important information about the Florida Indians, the exploration and description of abandoned Indian villages in the Southwest, and the beginning of a study of prehistoric remains in Maine. While on a research trip in Maine, Cushing choked to death on a fishbone on April 10, 1900.

Even when considered apart from his tragically shortened professional life, Cushing's intellectual achievements are remarkable. He was one of the first professional anthropologists to live with the people he was studying. His remarkably close relations with the Zuni and the tone in which he wrote of them indicate that he did not adopt the typical stance of detached and superior observer. Moreover, Cushing's analysis of Zuni life took him several steps along the path of cultural relativism which was later to become critical to the development of anthropology as a discipline. Rather than seeing "culture" as a monolithic entity which Europeans and Americans had and Indian peoples did not, Cushing began to speak of "cultures" in the plural. He was far ahead of his time in his groping toward the idea that all peoples drew upon their own pasts, stories, and religions to understand the world around them.

Frank Hamilton Cushing of the BAE demonstrating sign language for the number six. Bureau of American Ethnology Glass Negatives of Indians Collection. Portrait 23-A-11.

1880 US Census: Zuni, Shi Wi Na, Valencia, New Mexico
Lai-An-Luh-Si-Wa Self D Male NA 70 ZUNI NM Laborer ZUNI NM ZUNI NM
Iu-I-Tsui-A-Luh-Tit-Sa Sister D Female NA 56 ZUNI NM Housekeeping ZUNI NM ZUNI NM
Tsai-Lu-Ai-Ti-Wa Son M Male NA 38 ZUNI NM Farmer ZUNI NM ZUNI NM
Tsai-A-Lu DauL M Female NA 30 ZUNI NM House Keeper ZUNI NM ZUNI NM
Iu-Niai-Tsa-Lun-Kia GSon S Male NA 10 ZUNI NM ZUNI NM ZUNI NM
Tsai-Iui-Tsai-Alu-Tit-Sa GDau S Female NA 5 ZUNI NM Zuni Nm ZUNI NM ZUNI NM
Pa-Lu-Wah-Ti SonL M Male NA 48 ZUNI NM Governor - Silversmith ZUNI NM ZUNI NM
Lau-Tit-Sa-Lu-Sit-Sa Dau M Female NA 40 ZUNI NM Housekeeper ZUNI NM ZUNI NM
Tsai-Ui-Si-Lun-Kia Nephew S Male NA 18 ZUNI NM Laborer ZUNI NM ZUNI NM
T. H. CUSHING Other S Male W 24 PA Ethnologist NY CT

Father: Dr Thomas Cushing b: 12 Dec 1821 in Cazenovia, Madison, New York
Mother: Sarah Ann Harding Chittenden b: 24 Aug 1829 in Chatham, Barnstable, Massachusetts