Cushman Indian Agency (Washington)

Indian Tribes Associated With This Agency
Skokomish, Clallam, Chehalis, Squaxin Island, Nisqualli, Muckleshoot, Quinaielt, Queet, and Georgetown

History
The Puyallup Indian School in Tacoma was given agent responsibilities for the Puyallup Agency in 1895. In 1910, the name of the school and agency was changed to Cushman. The Cushman School was closed in 1920 and the agent responsibilities were assigned to the Tulalip Agency for the Muckleshoot and Clallam Indians and to the Tahomah Agency for all other Indians under the Cushman Agency (formerly the Puyallup Agency).

Records
Agencies and subagencies were created as administrative offices of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and its predecessors. Their purpose was (and is) to manage Indian affairs with the tribes, to enforce policies, and to assist in maintaining the peace. The names and location of these agencies may have changed, but their purpose remained basically the same. Many of the records of genealogical value (for the tribe and tribal members) were created by and maintained by the agencies.

Some records for Puyallup Agency and Cushman School are in the Pacific/Alaska Regional Archives of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in Seattle, including:


 * A special census, 1880
 * Records of the Puyallup Land Commission, 1893-1909
 * Land allotment and sales records, 1894-1903
 * Indian census rolls, 1905-1921
 * Student case files for the Cushman School, 1917-1920

The 1900 federal census included population schedules for several tribes under the jurisdiction of the Puget Sound Agency in that year. The census includes the non-Indian employees of the Agency, as well as many pages of Indian Population Schedules for the native population of the Muckelshoot Indian Reservation, District 249, in King County, Washington, the Port Madison Indian Reservation, District 250, in Kitsap County, Washington, and the Lummi Indian Reservation, District 248, in Whatcom County, Washington.

Annual Indian Census Rolls were taken at this agency for 1910-1913 and 1915 to 1920. These rolls have been microfilmed by the National Archives as part of their Microcopy Number M595, roll 93. Copies of these records are also available at the National Archives, their Regional Archives, and at the Family History Library and its family history centers (their ). These census rolls are also available online at Ancestry.com's subscription web site.

Microfilm copies of ...Narrative and Statistical Reports... for the Cushman Agency, 1910-1920, are included in National Archives Microcopy M1011, Roll 33, available in the National Archives system and in the collections of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, beginning with their.