 Concerned with the loss of traditional Indian way of life, Davis acquired extensive artifacts to preserve and document Indian culture.In 1916, George Gustav Heye, founder of the Museum of the American Indian, hired Davis as a field collector of Indian ethnological specimens.Davis collected for the Heye Foundation from 1917 to 1930, focusing on artifacts of the Indian tribes of San Diego County/Southern California, Arizona, New Mexico, and northwestern Mexico, including the Paipai, Kiliwa, Cora, Huichol, Opata, Mayo, Seri, Apache, Cocopa, Tohono O’odham, Papago, Maricopa, Mojave, Hualapai, Yaqui, and Yuma Indians.