The Carlos Montezuma Collection houses correspondence, speeches, printed materials, and financial records documenting the life of an urban physician and Indian rights activist. Although the collection extends from 1887 to 1980, the bulk of the collection concerns Montezuma's activism from 1877 to 1922.
Identification:
MSS-60
Language:
Material in English
Repository:
Arizona State University Library. Greater Arizona Collection P.O. Box 871006 Tempe, AZ 85287-1006 Phone: (480) 965-4932 E-Mail: archives@asu.edu Questions? Ask An Archivist!
Biographical Note
Carlos Montezuma, physician and Indian Rights activist, was born near the Four Peaks in the Superstition Mountains of Central Arizona in approximately 1866. He was the son of the Yavapai Indians Co-cu-ye-vah and Thil-ge-ya. In 1871, Montezuma was captured by Pima Indians and sold to Carlos Gentile, who gave him his Anglo name. Gentile brought Montezuma to Washington, D.C., and then to Chicago, where he attended public schools. Before committing suicide, Gentile turned Montezuma over to Reverend G. W. Ingalls of the American Baptist Home Mission Society.
Montezuma completed his high school education at Urbana High School in Illinois and went on to graduate Magna Cum Laude from the University of Illinois. He entered the Chicago Medical School of Northwestern University and eventually established a private medical practice in Chicago. Montezuma became a leading spokesman for Indian Rights, founding a journal entitled Wassaja to address these issues. In his later years, he became ill with diabetes and tuberculosis and returned to the Fort McDowell Indian Reservation. He died on the reservation on January 31, 1923.
Scope and Content Note
The Carlos Montezuma Collection houses correspondence, speeches, printed materials, and financial records documenting the life of an urban physician and Indian rights activist. Although the collection extends from 1887 to 1980, the bulk of the collection concerns Montezuma's activism from 1877 to 1922.
To view this collection, make an appointment at least five business days prior to your visit by contacting Ask an Archivist or calling (480) 965-4932. Appointments in the Wurzburger Reading Room at Hayden Library (rm. 138) on the Tempe campus are available Monday through Friday. Check the ASU Library Hours page for current availability.
Copyright
Arizona State University does not own the copyright to this collection. We recognize that it is incumbent upon the researcher to procure permission to publish information from this collection from the owner of the copyright.
Photographs received with this collection have been removed to the Carlos Montezuma Photograph Collection (Call# CP MONT). They can be searched using Arizona State University's Special Materials Index (available at http://spmi.lib.asu.edu/.
Access Terms
Personal Name(s)
Montezuma, Carlos, 1866-1923
Subject(s)
Fort McDowell Indian Reservation (Ariz.)
Indians of North America -- Civil rights
Indians of North America -- Legal status, laws, etc.
Indians of North America -- Politics and government