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Carlos Montezuma Collection 1887-1980 (bulk 1887-1922)

MSS-60

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.

Arrangement

Restrictions

Access Restrictions

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.

Related Material

Interested researchers may also wish to consult the University of Arizona's AZ 287: Carlos Montezuma Papers (guide available at http://www.azarchivesonline.org/xtf/view?docId=ead/uoa/UAAZ287.xml).

Separated Materials

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

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Carlos Montezuma Collection, MSS-60, Arizona State University Library.

Provenance

The Carlos Montezuma Collection was purchased in 1973 from Frank D. Novak of Chicago, Illinois (ACC# 1973-00057).

Other Finding Aids

A calendar describing each item in the collection from Box 3 through Box 14 is available upon request in the Luhrs Reading Room.

Bibliography

Thrapp, Dan L., Encyclopedia of Frontier Biography, Glendale, California, Arthur H. Clark Company, 1988.

Container List