CUSHING, FRANK HAMILTON

born July 22, 1857, North East, Pa., U.S. died April 10, 1900, Washington, D.C. early American ethnographer of the Zuni people. Cushing studied the Zuni culture while making a five-year stay with the tribe, during which he was initiated into the Bow Priest Society. Many of his findings are summarized in Zui Folk Tales (1901), Zui Creation Myths (1896), and My Adventures in Zui (1941), as well as in his treatises on native technologies, such as Zui Breadstuff. He was an authority on the processes by which artifacts are made, having practiced the aboriginal arts until he mastered them. Cushing studied natural science at Cornell University. He was employed by the Smithsonian Institution's Bureau of American Ethnography from the age of 18 until his death.