Doctors and other medical personnel at Cushman Hospital appear to be preparing a patient for surgery under an array of bright lights on July 23, 1925. Cushman was a veterans hospital located at 2002 E. 28th St., the former grounds of the Puyallup Indian School. The government had built a modern hospital with up-to-date equipment to be used on ailing ex-servicemen. G30.1-001
Veterans undergoing treatment at Cushman Hospital. Two men appear to be getting help for their backs on July 23, 1925, in Cushman Hospital's treatment room. A third man, barefoot, stares at a machine equipped with a gauge. Cushman would close as a veterans hospital in 1928 and reopen shortly thereafter to aid Indians with tuberculosis. G30.1-002
View of Cushman Hospital and neighborhood taken from McKinley Hill on March 6, 1927. This hospital for veterans was located in Tacoma's east side. It originally housed the Puyallup Indian School. In January of 1929, Cushman would close as a veterans hospital and reopen as a tuberculosis unit for the U.S. Indian Service. G8.1-097
Aerial view of Tacoma's east side and Cushman Hospital. The hospital for veterans is the cluster of buildings in the center of this June, 1926, photograph. Surrounding homes are nestled in wooded lots.
Cushman Indian School Convention Group portrait of Native Americans posed on the grass outside the Cushman Indian School, 2002 E. 28th St., in June of 1918. The school buildings became the Cushman Hospital the same year. G5.1-017
Group portraits; Meetings--Tacoma--1910-1920; Indians of North America--Tacoma--1910-1920;
These Native American girls were taking a sewing class at the Cushman Indian School on the Puyallup Reservation in June of 1918. The goal of Native American education from 1880-1920 was to assimilate the children into the dominant European culture, removing them from traditional Indian ways. One method was to remove them from their families and enroll them in government run boarding schools. By 1910, the Puyallup Indian School had become the Cushman Indian School, a large industrial boarding school, hosting over 350 students from the Northwest and Alaska. The school's focus was training the students for a place as a laborer in an industrialized America. During WWI the Red Cross entered into a partnership with schools to produce needed goods for the war torn countries. The girls in this photograph are probably sewing for the Red Cross. The boarding school closed in 1920. G39.1-163; TPL-2822
Cushman Indian School (Tacoma); Boarding schools--Puyallup Reservation; Sewing--1910-1920; Sewing machines--1910-1920;