From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Carlos Montezuma
Carlos Montezuma
Gentile, a cultured and liberal man from Naples who had
moved to America in the 1850s, adopted Wassaja as his
own son and renamed him "Carlos Montezuma", partly
after himself, partly from the Montezuma ruins near
Adamsville, and partly as an enduring and proud remin-
der of the child’s cultural heritage.[2]
In the following years, Wassaja/Carlos accompanied
his adoptive father in his pioneering photographic and
ethnographic expeditions in Arizona, New Mexico and
Colorado. For a few months in 1872-73 they even joined
the theatrical troupe of Buffalo Bill, where the boy Was-
saja was featured as Azteka, the Apache-child of Cochise in
the Wild West melodrama The Scouts of the Prairie in cities
such as Chicago, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Louisville, Cleve-
land and Pittsburgh, while Gentile produced and sold
promotional carte de visite of the cast members.[3]
Gentile and Montezuma resided in Chicago and then
New York for some years until the loss of all his belongin-
gs in a fire in 1877 forced Gentile back to his itinerant life
and to Chicago. Being regularly homeschooled by Gentile
and attending public schools in Chicago (1872-75), Gales-
burg (1875-77) and Brooklyn (1877-78), Wassaja had re-
vealed to be a committed and talented student. Realiz-
ing that he needed a more permanent setting to complete
his education, in the fall of 1878 Gentile asked for the as-
sistance of the Reverend George W. Ingalls of the Indian
Department of the American Baptist Home Mission. Was-
saja was placed in the care of Baptist minister William H.
Wassaja aka Carlos Montezuma: A Yavapai activist Steadman, of Urbana, Illinois, while Gentile was busy to
revive his business as photographer and editor in Chica-
Carlos Montezuma or Wassaja (born ca. 1866; died go. [4]
1923) was a Yavapai/Apache activist and a founding The precocious child could now devote himself en-
member of the Society of American Indians. tirely to study. He graduated with honors from Urbana
High School in 1879. Following one more year of prepara-
tory work, he enrolled at the University of Illinois in
Biography 1880. He was only fourteen years old. At the University of
"I am a full-blooded Apache Indian, born around the year Illinois he studied English, mathematics, German, phys-
1866... some where near Four Peaks, Arizona Territory"-- iology, microscopy, zoology, mineralogy, physics, physi-
so Dr. Montezuma introduced himself in a letter written ology, mental science, logic, constitutional history, polit-
in 1905 to the Smithsonian Institution. [1] He was named ical economy, and geology, excelling in chemistry, which
"Wassaja" (which means "signaling" or "beckoning") by he took each quarter. Montezuma (or Monte as endear-
his parents. His father was a chief named Co-cu-ye-vah ingly he was referred to by classmates)[5] also began his
and his mother was named Thil-ge-ya. In October 1871, public activity in support of Native Americans’ rights. On
at the age of 5, he was captured by Pima raiders together May 5, 1883 the campus paper, The Illini, records a speech
with other children to be sold or bartered. Massaja was on Indian’s Bravery Montezuma delivered the night before
brought to Adamsville, a mixed Anglo and Mexican vil- in Adelphic Hall in front of a large audience, in which "he
lage, and offered for thirty silver dollars to itinerant Ital- likened the Indians to the Spartans at Thermopylae."
ian photographer Carlo Gentile, who happened to be in After graduating from the University of Illinois in
the area for his ethnographic work on Native Americans. 1884, Montezuma returned to Chicago. He there received
his doctorate of medicine from the Chicago Medical Col-
1
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Carlos Montezuma
lege, a branch of Northwestern University, in 1889 and Affairs (BIA); he was twice offered the post of commis-
obtained his license to practice that same year. Montezu- sioner of Indian affairs but refused. Instead, he helped
ma was not only the first Native American student at found the Society of American Indians in 1911, the first
both the University of Illinois and Northwestern Univer- Indian rights organization created by and for Indians. In
sity, but also the first Native American even to earn a 1916 he started a monthly magazine titled Wassaja that
Medical Degree in an American University. he used as a platform to spread his views of the BIA and
As early as 1887, Carlos Montezuma had been corre- Native American education, civil rights and citizenship.
sponding with Richard Henry Pratt, a staunch assimila- Dr. Montezuma became very ill in 1922 and decided
tionist and founder of the Carlisle Indian School in Penn- to permanently return to the land of his people. He died
sylvania. In the eyes of Pratt, Montezuma was a living ex- on January 31, 1923 and is buried at the Fort McDowell
ample of what educated Native Americans could accom- Indian cemetery. The memory of his work faded until the
plish. In 1887 Montezuma was invited to address audi- 1970s when historians rediscovered his work.
ences in New York and Philadelphia on this topic. Thanks
to these connections, immediately after graduation, Jef-
ferson Morgan, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, offered
References
dr. Montezuma to work as a physician with the Bureau In 1982 Peter Iverson of Arizona State University wrote
of Indian Affairs (BIA). In 1889 Montezuma traveled to a biography of Montezuma/Wassaja.[8] In 1998 Cesare
reservations and provided services to Native Americans Marino of Smithsonian Institution, in his biography of
at Fort Stevenson in Dakota Territory. In 1890 he was Carlo Gentile, provided additional information about the
transferred to the Western Shoshone Agency in Nevada. childhood of Montezuma/Wassaja and his whereabouts
In January 1893, Montezuma went to Colville Agency in before 1878. [9] In 2008 Gina Capaldi published an illus-
the State of Washington, and finally, in July 1893 to the trated children book based on the life of Carlos Montezu-
Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania. Here, ma.[10]
Montezuma had the opportunity to work with his men- • Peter Iverson, Carlos Montezuma and the Changing
tor Richard Henry Pratt. This relationship, along with World of American Indians (1982)
his negative experiences working on the various reserva- • Cesare Marino, The Remarkable Carlo Gentile: Italian
tions, helped form his early ideas of Indian policy. Photographer of the American Frontier (Nevada City:
On October 27, 1893, Wassaja’s adoptive father, Carlo Carl Mautz, 1998)
Gentile, died in Chicago.[6] Montezuma had last visited • Gina Capaldi, A Boy Named Beckoning: The True Story of
Gentile in the Summer 1893, while traveling from the Dr. Carlos Montezuma, Native American Hero
State of Washington to his new job at Carlisle. Being now (Carolrhoda Books, 2008)
in Pennsylvania, Montezuma was not able to attend the
funeral. He gave financial aid to Gentile’s widow and in
an ironic twist of fate, he became for some time the cus-
todian of Gentile’s six-year-old son (also named Carlos)
Notes
until Gentile’s widow and the child moved to California [1] The letter was written by Montezuma in response
by 1896.[7] to a request from Professor William H. Holmes of
At the beginning of 1896 Dr. Montezuma left Pratt to the Smithsonian Institution. A typescript copy of
return to Chicago and start private medical practice. In the letter is in the National Anthropological
1900, he traveled as team doctor with Coach Pop Warn- Archives.
er’s National Champion Carlisle Indian School football [2] Carlo Marino, The Remarkable Carlo Gentile: Italian
team back to Arizona for the first time since his child- Photographer of the American Frontier (Nevada City:
hood. The following year he was again in Arizona on his Carl Mautz, 1998), pp.22-31.
own, contacting long-lost relatives he had not seen since [3] C. Marino, The Remarkable Carlo Gentile, pp.43-47;
his abduction. Montezuma’s hatred for the reservations Peter E. Palmquist, and Thomas R. Kailbourn,
softened once he saw how connected his people were Pioneer Photographers of the Far West: A Biographical
to their ancestral land and understood that they consid- Dictionary (2000).
ered it home. Thereafter, he joined the Yavapai struggle [4] C. Marino, The Remarkable Carlo Gentile, pp.53-55.
that led to the creation of the Fort McDowell Yavapai or [5] The Public (November 2007).
Mohave-Apache Reservation by late 1903. Until his death [6] Rumors of suicide in later literature (see
he would fight to support the rights of his people in the Encyclopedia of Frontier Biography by Dan L.
reservation. Thrapp are not confirmed either in the letters
By 1905, Carlos Montezuma attracted national atten- Montezuma exchanged with Gentile’s widow, or in
tion as an Indian leader. He began publicly attacking the the obituary published in The Eye of November 11,
government for the conditions imposed upon Natives. He 1893, where it is said the Gentile "suffered from
became an outspoken opponent of the Bureau of Indian Bright disease".
2
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Carlos Montezuma
[7] C. Marino, The Remarkable Carlo Gentile, pp.56-67. • Carlos Montezuma Video (YouTube)
[8] Carlos Montezuma and the Changing World of American Persondata
Indians, by Peter Iverson
Name Montezuma, Carlos
[9] The Remarkable Carlo Gentile: Italian Photographer of
the American Frontier, by Cesare Marino. Alternative names
[10] A Boy Named Beckoning: The True Story of Dr. Carlos Short description
Montezuma, Native American Hero, by Gina Capaldi. Date of birth 1866
Place of birth
External Links Date of death 1923
• Carlos Montezuma Papers at Newberry Library Place of death
• Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation
• Gale Encyclopedia of Biograpies at Asnwers.com
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Carlos_Montezuma&oldid=468577270"
Categories:
• Native Americans' rights activists
• Apache people
• 1923 deaths
• University of Illinois alumni
• Feinberg School of Medicine alumni
• Carlisle Indian Industrial School people
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