Editor’s note: This is one in an occasional series on “forgotten” ancestors who may not be fully recognized today for their achievements.
Raymond Wilson
Special to ICT
The exact year Carlos Montezuma’s birth is unknown. The Yavapai man was born between 1865 and 1867 near Fort McDowell in Arizona Territory. What is known, however, is his career as a medical physician, author, newsletter editor and staunch advocate for Indian reform, especially demanding the elimination of the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs.
His parents named him Wassaja, translated as signaling or beckoning, and later in life he used this name for his newsletter that he created in April 1916. During a skirmish with the Pima in 1871, Wassaja was among the prisoners taken by the Pima, who later sold him to Carlo Gentile, an Italian photographer. Gentile adopted the child and named him Carlos Montezuma.
After months of travel to several locales, Gentile and Montezuma moved to Chicago in 1872. Because of his connections, Gentile convinced Buffalo Bill Cody to hire Montezuma to play Azteka, a stereotyped Native character who was billed as the son of Apache leader Cochise in “The Scouts of the Prairie, and Red Deviltry As It is!” The stage show production was performed in several eastern cities. Montezuma left the show in March 1873.
Montezuma attended several public schools and became an exceptional student, graduating from Urbana High School in Illinois in 1879. Again, Gentile played a major role in convincing the American Baptist Home Mission Society to help Montezuma attend the University of Illinois in 1880, after completing preparatory university work. He also received financial aid from the university and the YMCA. Graduating in 1884 in the pharmaceutical program with a Bachelor of Science in chemistry, Montezuma wrote his senior thesis, entitled “Valuation of Opiums and Their Products.” Additionally, he was chosen as president of the class of 1884 and served as president of the Adelphic Debate Society.
Montezuma decided to become a medical physician, and again with help of friends, entered Chicago Medical College in 1884. Although he received financial aid, he earned his medical degree in 1889 instead of 1888 because he struggled financially and had to work outside of class. He was the second Native to receive a medical degree from an institution of higher learning (Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte, Omaha, being the first).
Initially unable to establish a successful private practice, Montezuma worked as a BIA physician between 1889 and 1896, first at Fort Stevenson Indian School, North Dakota, then at the Western Shoshone Agency in Nevada, next at the Colville Agency in Washington, and finally at Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania. His years among Natives at these places convinced him that federal Indian policies had dramatically failed to provide better health care to Natives as well as improve economic, political and social conditions. He later demanded the BIA be abolished.
In 1896, Montezuma returned to Chicago and joined a private practice with a prominent non-Native physician he had known previously. Montezuma specialized in internal and stomach medicine, worked long hours, secured permanent employment for decades, and became more of an active advocate for Native reforms.
He made many trips back to his homeland in Arizona to help his people, especially with land and water rights. Additionally, on April 7, 1904, Sioux performers from Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show riding on the Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company were involved in a terrible train wreck near Melrose Park, Illinois. Montezuma received permission from the BIA to attend to Native medical needs and tried to get the injured parties adequately compensated. He estimated that fair compensation for the survivors was $51,250. The railroad countered with $11,900 damage payments, which was ultimately approved.
Montezuma was among the founders of the Society of American Indians, a pan-Indian organization established in 1911 that focused on important Native issues. He was often at odds with some SAI members, particularly regarding what Montezuma considered their overly positive relationship with the BIA.
Regarding Native participation in World War I, Montezuma contended that Natives should not be drafted. He argued it should be their choice to serve until the U.S. granted them citizenship.
In addition to his lectures to various local and national organizations beginning in the 1880s, Montezuma wrote articles in The Red Man and in the Quarterly Journal of the Society of American Indians, renamed the American Indian Magazine in 1916, two important Native publications.
His major outlet, however, was Wassaja, a monthly newsletter that Montezuma founded in April 1916 and published until November 1922. The impressive mastheads displayed how Natives suffered under BIA policies, and his editorials expressed his staunch beliefs on how Natives should be treated and respected.
On a personal note, Montezuma married Marie Keller, a non-Native, on September 19, 1913. Earlier, he had some poor serious relationships with other women he dated, including Gertrude Simmons Bonnin (Zitkala-Sa), a Yankton Sioux and noted Native activist. They became engaged, but Bonnin called off the engagement and married another. Montezuma was extremely hurt, and in addition, Bonnin lost the engagement ring.
Montezuma realized Natives had to change to survive in the dominant culture. As the years passed, he became more of an advocate of acculturation and believed reservations, if supported by better federal political, economic and social programs, would provide Natives with the tools they needed to participate and succeed as U.S. citizens. On January 31, 1923, Montezuma died from tuberculosis and was buried at Fort McDowell Cemetery in Arizona.
Sources: Carlos Montezuma Papers; Society of the American Indian Papers; Peter Iverson, “Carlos Montezuma and the Changing World of American Indians,” (1982); and Leon Speroff, “Carlos Montezuma, M.D., A Yavapai American Hero,” (2003).
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