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The Pharos/Spring 2019 9 Carlos Montezuma Was a Yavapai Indian

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The Pharos/Spring 2019 9 Carlos Montezuma Was a Yavapai Indian Leon Speroff, MD Dr. Speroff is Professor Emeritus, Obstetrics and American Indian physician. This distinction belongs to Gynecology, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, Susan La Flesche Picotte, a member of the Omaha tribe, Oregon. He is the recipient of the 2018 AΩA Robert H. who graduated from the Women’s Medical College of Moser Essay Award. Pennsylvania in Philadelphia (now the Medical College of Pennsylvania–Hahneman University). Unlike Montezuma, arlos Montezuma was a Yavapai Indian from she confined her efforts to her own tribe and was little Arizona who grew up in white society and was the known nationally. first Indian student to attend the Chicago Medical Montezuma devoted his life to fighting for American CCollege, which became Northwestern University School Indians. His straightforward, strongly held views, and his of Medicine. He graduated at 23-years-old on March 26, personality and character, were formed by his identity 1889, losing by two weeks the distinction of being the first as an American Indian. This identity was not a simple Photo: Carlos Montezuma, 1896. Collections of the National The Pharos/Spring 2019 Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution. (PD-US expired) 9 pp 9-16 Montezuma SP19 REDO.indd 9 5/28/19 9:52 AM Carlos Montezuma, MD commitment; it was total and pas- knives, stones, and tomahawks, most sionate dedication that empowered of the old men, women, and children Montezuma to make his people proud were killed (the young men had left of him; to direct his abilities to help- camp for a peace conference). The ing the American Indian (especially camp was burned and looted, and 13 his Yavapai tribe); to never deny who children were taken captive. Taken he was; and to behave in a way that by horseback to the area around made him worthy as a hero. In 1912, Florence, Wassaja was sold to Carlo he took the floor during a discussion Gentile, an itinerant Italian photogra- period at the meeting of the Society of pher, who paid nearly all the money he American Indians and said, “If I should do had for him—30 silver dollars. anything disgraceful in my life or practice, it Gentile had Wassaja baptized would reflect as a wrong to my people.” on November 17, 1871, in the brand new Montezuma was a hero to his many “La Capila del Gila,” in Florence, the first Montezuma at age six in the friends and patients, and an inspiration Buffalo Bill Show. National Catholic church in Central Arizona. The to countless Indians and others who met Anthropological Archives, building still stands today, next to the him, read about him, or heard him speak. Smithsonian Institution, newer church. Gentile named him Carlos NAA 06702500 He was a hero in American history, playing after himself, adding an “s” for the Spanish a pivotal role in shaping national events. He is still a hero version, and Montezuma, either because of the Montezuma to the Arizona Fort McDowell Yavapai, who now number ruins nearby, or because he knew that Montezuma, the about 1,000 with about 600 living on their reservation. He great Aztec ruler, was an important mythological figure for single-handedly preserved his tribe’s land and water rights the Indians of the Southwest. Although the exact date of by obstructing the plans of the federal government. Their Montezuma’s birth is not known, the date of record on his ongoing allegiance and affection are his lasting tributes. baptismal certificate is March 27, 1866. The United States government repeatedly attempted to move the Yavapai Tribe, several hundred members, from Tumultuous moves their small reservation 23 miles east of Phoenix (24,680 Gentile and Montezuma traveled throughout the acres measuring four miles wide east to west, and 10 miles Southwest, and then headed to Chicago, where Gentile long in the north-south direction). The federal objective worked in an art gallery. For a short time in 1872, was to gain use of the Verde River water on the reservation Montezuma was in the cast of Buffalo Bill’s first stage to irrigate non-Indian lands. Montezuma’s intervention show. When some of Gentile’s photographs were featured was crucial in a 12-year battle that ended successfully and in exhibits and received awards, he and Montezuma then prevented the removal of the Fort McDowell Indians. moved to New York City. In the fall of 1878, a fire destroyed Gentile’s New Early life York store and almost all that it contained. Gentile and Montezuma’s Yavapai name was Wassaja (Wa-SAH- Montezuma moved to Boston where they met a Baptist jah), which means signaling or beckoning. He was five- or missionary, who, learning that Gentile was seeking a stable six-years-old in October 1871, when he was camped with home for Montezuma, put them in contact with The his family in an area called Iron Mountain, east of the American Baptist Home Mission Society and its Indian Superstition Mountains (50 miles east of Phoenix). His department, directed by George W. Ingalls. family belonged to the southwestern group of Yavapai Within two or three months, Ingalls arranged the that now calls Fort McDowell home. The Yavapai people placement of 11-year-old Montezuma in the household of were foot nomads, roaming the land searching for food in Reverend William H. Stedman, pastor of the First Baptist central Arizona from the Gila River near Florence to the Church in Urbana, Illinois. San Francisco mountain peaks in the north near Flagstaff. After one year of private tutoring, Montezuma passed These were a few thousand Yavapai occupying about the entrance exam for the Preparatory School of the 20,000 square miles. University of Illinois, a special school operated by the Pima warriors attacked the Yavapai camp early in university because of the poor quality of high schools at the morning, long before dawn. Using guns, arrows, the time. 10 The Pharos/Spring 2019 pp 9-16 Montezuma SP19 REDO.indd 10 5/28/19 9:52 AM In 1880, Montezuma entered the University of Illinois later, he was appointed as physician on the Colville Agency at the age of 14, and four years later, he graduated as in Washington. He became increasingly disillusioned. president of his class and president of the Adelphic Debate Society. Ten days after graduation, he entered the Chicago Boarding school physician Medical School. Even though the school did not charge Richard H. Pratt, the founder and supervisor of the him tuition, it took him five years to graduate because he Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania became could not attend classes full-time, main- Montezuma’s mentor and hero. Carlisle taining a job in a pharmacy throughout was the foremost example and pro- his medical school years. ponent of assimilation. The boarding school’s mission was summarized in At the Chicago Medical School the masthead of its weekly newspaper, During his early years as a student “To Civilize the Indian; Get Him Into in Chicago, Montezuma presented Civilization. To Keep Him Civilized; Let many lectures on Indians to a variety Him Stay.” of groups ranging from ladies’ clubs Pratt heard of Montezuma’s unhap- to church organizations. His standard piness and suggested that Montezuma speech was entitled, “The Indian of apply for the position of school physi- Tomorrow.” cian. Montezuma served in this posi- At that time, Montezuma totally ac- tion from July 1893 to December 1895, cepted and enthusiastically promoted Montezuma at the University of with an annual salary of $1,200. the philosophy of assimilation, which is Illinois, circa 1880. Courtesy of the Besides his medical duties, not surprising given his immersion in University of Illinois Archives.(PD-US expired) Montezuma made inspections, taught the prevailing Protestant environment. hygienics, lectured the Indian children The objective of assimilation, to make white men out of about being on the grass, and worried about his financial red men, was derived from a fundamental conflict between affairs. Part of his shortage of money can be attributed to the communal life and customs of American Indians and his generous practice of providing notes to allow the bear- the Protestant focus on individualism, based strongly on ers (colleagues and older students) to draw funds against the Puritan work ethic. The fervent reformers believed his school account. that the force of Christianity could bring about changes Toward the end of the 19th century, American Indians, within one generation. They viewed Indian culture and now locked on reservations, had become completely de- way of life as heathen and pagan. pendent on federal programs. A traditional way of life, including the methods of achieving economic well-being, Working for the Indian Bureau had been destroyed. Instead of assimilation into main- After graduating from medical school, Montezuma stream society, Indian communities had sunk into a dispir- opened an office on the south side of Chicago. He had little ited existence on the dole, which was barely sufficient to business. It would have been nearly impossible to attract sustain life. paying patients by a young inexperienced Indian physician Montezuma’s experiences on the reservations con- with no family or business connections. Montezuma had vinced him that the Indian Bureau and the reservation to continue to work as a pharmacist. This financial diffi- system were failures, and prisons. He believed that the culty motivated him to accept a post as a physician in the path to success required the insertion of Indians into civi- Indian Service. lized communities. This was the primary objective of the He began work with enthusiasm and optimism at Fort Carlisle School, to transform the Indian into a copy of the Stevenson, a military fort converted into a school for the European-derived white man—the philosophy and process children of the Fort Berthold Reservation in the northern of assimilation.
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