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363:'s National Champion Carlisle Indian School football team back to Arizona for the first time since his childhood. The following year he was again in Arizona on his own, contacting long-lost relatives he had not seen since his abduction. Montezuma's hatred for the reservations softened once he saw how connected his people were to their ancestral land and understood that they considered it home. Thereafter, he joined the Yavapai struggle that led to the creation of the
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On
October 27, 1893, Wassaja's adoptive father, Carlo Gentile, died in Chicago. Montezuma had last visited Gentile in the summer of 1893 while traveling from the State of Washington to his new job at Carlisle. Being now in Pennsylvania, Montezuma was not able to attend the funeral. He gave financial
248:(1875–1877), and Brooklyn (1877–1878), Wassaja had been revealed to be a committed and talented student. Realizing that he needed a more permanent setting to complete his education, in the fall of 1878 Gentile asked for the assistance of the Reverend George W. Ingalls of the Indian Department of the
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Dr. Montezuma became very ill with tuberculosis in 1922 and decided to permanently return to the land of his people. He died on
January 31, 1923, and is buried at the Fort McDowell Indian cemetery. The memory of his work faded until the 1970s, when historians rediscovered his achievements. Up until
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In the following years, Wassaja accompanied his adoptive father in his pioneering photographic and ethnographic expeditions in
Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado. For a few months in 1872 and 1873, they joined the theatrical troupe of Ned Buntline and Buffalo Bill, where the boy Wassaja was featured
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After graduating from the
University of Illinois in 1884, Montezuma returned to Chicago. He received his doctorate of medicine from the Chicago Medical College, a branch of Northwestern University, in 1889. Montezuma obtained his license to practice that same year. Montezuma was not only the first
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in
Pennsylvania. In the eyes of Pratt, Montezuma was a living example of what educated Native Americans could accomplish. In 1887 Montezuma was invited to address audiences in New York and Philadelphia on this topic. Thanks to these connections, immediately after graduation, Jefferson Morgan,
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Gentile and
Montezuma resided in Chicago and then New York for some years until the loss of all his belongings in a fire in 1877 forced Gentile back to his itinerant life and on to Chicago. Being regularly homeschooled by Gentile and attending public schools in Chicago (1872–1875), Galesburg
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in 1879. Following one more year of preparatory work, he enrolled at the
University of Illinois in 1880 at only fourteen years old. At the University of Illinois he studied English, mathematics, German, physiology, microscopy, zoology, mineralogy, physics, physiology, mental science, logic,
219:, a mixed Anglo and Mexican village, and offered for 30 silver dollars to itinerant Italian photographer Carlo Gentile, who happened to be in the area for his ethnographic work on Native Americans. Gentile, an educated man from
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who had moved to
America in the 1850s, adopted Wassaja as his own son and renamed him "Carlos Montezuma" as an enduring and proud reminder of the child's cultural heritage, partly after himself, partly from the
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aid to
Gentile's widow and in an ironic twist of fate, he became for some time the custodian of Gentile's six-year-old son (also named Carlos) until Gentile's widow and the child moved to California by 1896.
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The letter was written by
Montezuma in response to a request from Professor William H. Holmes of the Smithsonian Institution. A typescript copy of the letter is in the National Anthropological Archives.
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By 1905, Carlos Montezuma attracted national attention as an Indian leader. He began publicly attacking the government for the conditions imposed upon Natives. He became an outspoken opponent of the
344:. In 1890 he was transferred to the Western Shoshone Agency in Nevada. In January 1893, Montezuma went to Colville Agency in the State of Washington, and finally, in July 1893 he traveled to the
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Native American student at both the University of Illinois and Northwestern University, but also the second Native American ever to earn a Medical Degree in an American University after
252:. Wassaja was placed in the care of Baptist minister William H. Steadman, of Urbana, Illinois, while Gentile was busy reviving his business as a photographer and editor in Chicago.
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meeting with the Peoria tribe, originally from Illinois but relocated to Oklahoma by the Indian Relocation Act, in order to improve Native American relations on campus.
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At the beginning of 1896 Dr. Montezuma left Pratt to return to Chicago and start private medical practice. In 1900, he traveled as a team doctor with Coach
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for thirty silver dollars at the age of 5 or 6 years old. Gentile renamed him "Carlos Montezuma". Montezuma was the first Native American student at the
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412:. In 2015, the University of Illinois announced that it would be naming its newest residence hall in his honor. The naming included former Chancellor
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Montezuma delivered the night before in Adelphic Hall in front of a large audience, in which "he likened the Indians to the Spartans at Thermopylae."
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as he was referred to by classmates) also began his public activity in support of Native Americans' rights. On May 5, 1883, the campus paper,
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352:. This relationship, along with his negative experiences working on the various reservations, helped form his early ideas of Indian policy.
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by late 1903. In 1904, Dr. Montezuma founded the Indian Fellowship League, the first urban Indian organization in the U.S., in Chicago.
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187:. Wassaja was the first Native American male to receive a medical degree. Until his death Wassaja fought to support the rights of his
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in cities such as Chicago, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Louisville, Cleveland and Pittsburgh, while Gentile produced and sold promotional
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constitutional history, political economy, and geology, excelling in chemistry, which he took each quarter. Montezuma (or
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raiders along with other children to be sold or bartered. In 1871, Wassaja was then purchased by an Italian photographer
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that he used as a platform to spread his views of the BIA and Native American education, civil rights and citizenship.
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in 1911, the first Indian rights organization created by and for Indians. In 1916 he started a monthly magazine titled
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are not confirmed either in the letters Montezuma exchanged with Gentile's widow, or in the obituary published in
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Carlos Montezuma, M.D. : a Yavapai American Hero : the Life and Times of an American Indian, 1866-1923
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163:. His birth name, Wassaja, means "Signaling" or "Beckoning" in his native tongue. Wassaja was kidnapped by
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336:(BIA). In 1889 Montezuma traveled to reservations and provided services to Native Americans at
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his death he continued to fight to support the rights of his people in the reservation.
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A precocious child, he devoted himself entirely to study. He graduated with honors from
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A Boy Named Beckoning: The True Story of Dr. Carlos Montezuma, Native American Hero
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Commissioner of Indian Affairs, offered Dr. Montezuma work as a physician with the
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of November 11, 1893, where it is said the Gentile "suffered from Bright disease".
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199:"I am a full-blooded Apache Indian, born around the year 1866... somewhere near
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300:(1889). Wassaja was the first Native American man to receive a medical degree.
207:", wrote Dr. Montezuma, introducing himself in a letter written in 1905 to the
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in Pennsylvania. Here, Montezuma had the opportunity to work with his mentor
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The Remarkable Carlo Gentile: Italian Photographer of the American Frontier.
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The Remarkable Carlo Gentile: Italian Photographer of the American Frontier.
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Pioneer Photographers of the Far West: A Biographical Dictionary 1840-1865.
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As early as 1887, Carlos Montezuma had been corresponding with
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The grave of Dr. Carlos Montezuma in "Ba Dah Mod Jo" Cemetery.
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Montezuma during his career as Native American rights activist
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Carlos Montezuma and the Changing World of American Indians
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A semi-fictional account of the life of Montezuma/Wassaja
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Dr. Carlos Montezuma, Wassaja Memorial Health Center
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Encyclopedia of Frontier Biography by Dan L. Thrapp
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365:Fort McDowell Yavapai or Mohave-Apache Reservation
264:Dr. Montezuma served as resident physician at the
457:Palmquist, Peter E.; Kailbourn, Thomas R. (2000)
408:in 1996 named their new health care facility the
461:Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.
682:. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
538:Nevada City, California: Carl Mautz Publishing.
448:Nevada City, California: Carl Mautz Publishing.
668:. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
215:raiders and enslaved. Wassaja was brought to
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517:Rumors of suicide in later literature (see
841:Members of the Society of American Indians
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831:Carlisle Indian Industrial School faculty
550:"Making Room for Native American Voices"
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382:(BIA). In addition, he helped found the
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639:. Portland, Oregon: Arnica Publishing.
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159:, activist and founding member of the
816:20th-century deaths from tuberculosis
250:American Baptist Home Mission Society
135:Native American civil rights activism
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821:Activists for Native American rights
571:Shreve, Bradley (August 23, 2021).
495:. US National Library of Medicine.
191:people and other Native Americans.
148:(c. 1866 – January 31, 1923) was a
836:Feinberg School of Medicine alumni
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705:. Minneapolis: Carolrhoda Books.
552:. Field Museum of Natural History
346:Carlisle Indian Industrial School
801:20th-century American physicians
796:19th-century American physicians
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615:from the original on 25 May 2015
499:from the original on 13 May 2016
548:Wali, Alaka (8 November 2018).
856:Tuberculosis deaths in Arizona
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851:University of Illinois alumni
811:20th-century Native Americans
806:19th-century Native Americans
866:Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation
760:Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation
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384:Society of American Indians
236:in the Wild West melodrama
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846:Native American physicians
493:"Susan La Flesche Picotte"
238:The Scouts of the Prairie
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478:January 3, 2012, at the
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334:Bureau of Indian Affairs
298:Susan La Flesche Picotte
185:Susan La Flesche Picotte
16:Native American activist
744:Carlos Montezuma Papers
674:Iverson, Peter (1982).
534:Marino, Cesare (1998).
444:Marino, Cesare (1998).
234:Apache-child of Cochise
209:Smithsonian Institution
181:Northwestern University
118:Northwestern University
766:Carlos Montezuma Video
697:Capaldi, Gina (2008).
635:Speroff, Leon (2003).
578:Tribal College Journal
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329:Carlisle Indian School
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288:, records a speech on
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87:Fort McDowell Cemetery
84:Ba Dah Mod Jo Cemetery
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573:"Up from the Abyss"
350:Richard Henry Pratt
327:and founder of the
321:Richard Henry Pratt
749:2011-01-06 at the
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274:Urbana High School
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717:(children's book)
605:"Who is Wassaja?"
290:Indian's Bravery,
228:near Adamsville.
205:Arizona Territory
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791:1923 deaths
589:October 27,
556:12 December
102:Citizenship
92:Nationality
780:Categories
689:0826307620
666:Savage Son
646:0972653546
472:The Public
420:References
361:Pop Warner
217:Adamsville
201:Four Peaks
195:Early life
173:Adamsville
124:Occupation
57:Four Peaks
256:Education
747:Archived
613:Archived
503:27 April
497:Archived
476:Archived
771:YouTube
523:The Eye
389:Wassaja
313:Wassaja
189:Yavapai
150:Yavapai
146:Wassaja
96:Yavapai
53:c. 1866
50:Wassaja
29:Wassaja
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396:Legacy
304:Career
285:Illini
221:Naples
154:Apache
127:Doctor
279:Monte
707:ISBN
684:ISBN
641:ISBN
621:2015
591:2021
558:2021
505:2016
404:The
283:The
179:and
165:Pima
68:Died
46:Born
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