Bandelier was born in
Bern, Switzerland. As a youth, he emigrated to the United States with his family, which settled in
Highland, Illinois, a community established by other Swiss immigrants. He labored unhappily in the family business as a young man. He became acquainted with the pioneering anthropologist
Lewis Henry Morgan of New York, who served as a mentor as Bandelier turned to scholarship. In particular, he undertook
archaeological and
ethnological work among the
Native Americans of the southwestern United States, Mexico, and South America. Beginning his studies in
Sonora (Mexico),
Arizona, and New Mexico, Bandelier developed as the leading authority on the history of this region. With
F. H. Cushing and his successors, he became one of the leading authorities on its
prehistoric civilization, at a time when archeology and ethnology were new fields of study. In 1892, Bandelier left the Southwest to travel and conduct research in
Ecuador,
Bolivia, and
Peru, where he continued ethnological, archaeological, and historical investigations. In the first part of his fieldwork he was connected with the Hemenway Archaeological Expedition. In the second, he worked in NYC for
Henry Villard and for the
American Museum of Natural History. Bandelier had shown the falsity of various historical
myths, notably in his conclusions respecting the
Inca civilization of Peru. Another was American journalist and writer
Charles Fletcher Lummis, who also wrote on ethnology. Lummis traveled with Bandelier for a time in South America, before returning to his base in Los Angeles. ==Legacy and honors==