Carlos Montezuma American Indian Leader

Author : Olympia Sosangelis
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 150 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (262 download)

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Download or read book 'Something More Than an Indian' written by Olympia Sosangelis and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Carlos Montezuma was a Native American who lived 1866 to 1923. He was an intermediary between two worlds on a lifelong mission to help his tribe and his race. This thesis discusses Montezumaʼs identity as he traversed two divergent cultures. His early life was a remarkable journey from supposed savagery to civilization. He was born Wassaja, a Yavapai Indian living a nomadic tribal existence in central Arizona. In 1871, when he was a young boy of approximately five years of age, the Pima Indians, an enemy tribe, captured him in a raid, then sold him to Carlo Gentile, an itinerant photographer traveling through the southwest. Gentile renamed him Carlos Montezuma, giving him his American, Christian identity. Various white people cared for Montezuma during his formative years. He was rapidly indoctrinated into Anglo-American society. He was raised as a white child and attended public schools. Later, he attended college and medical school. He was the consummate example to others of what an Indian could achieve in one lifetime. His experience of being thrust into Anglo-American society as a child made him an ardent believer in rapid assimilation. Yet he was unable to entirely negate his Indian identity. Carlos Montezuma and Wassaja were dual identities. He was both an assimilated, educated, accomplished medical doctor and also a Native American with strong ethnic loyalties. He had conflicting allegiances. He was both an ardent assimilationist and an Indian rights activist. He worked within the confines of white society, aligning himself with Richard Henry Pratt, a radical reformer and educator. Pratt and Montezuma believed Native Americans must denounce their Indian cultural heritage and lifeways believing it was an impediment to assimilation and progress. Montezuma believed public displays of Indianness in the form of clothing, accoutrements, dance, and music objectified Native Americans, transforming them into strange and exotic curiosities by the Anglo-American viewer. Yet, Montezumaʼs actions were in disharmony with his dogmatic approach to Indian assimilation, as he collected Indian artifacts as remembrances of his personal past, and as symbols of Indian history, lost lifeways, and Indian identity. Indeed, he attached great meaning to Indian material culture and heritage. Eventually, Montezuma redefined himself as an Indian rights activist. As a rapid assimilationist he condemned reservations, but then later fought tenaciously to keep his tribe at Fort McDowell Reservation when they were threatened by removal in 1910-1922. He recognized that the reservation was also a homeland and integral to tribal identity. Using his Apache name as the title, he self-published a radical newsletter, Wassaja: Freedomʼs Signal for the Indian, (1916-1922), in order to expose injustices perpetrated against Native Americans by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He was also a founding member of the Society of American Indians, a Pan-Indian reform organization. By the end of his life, Montezumaʼs Native American identity prevailed over his assimilationist identity, although he never abandoned his assimilationist beliefs. Quite possibly Montezumaʼs most defining statement regarding his Indian identity was going home to die among his people at Fort McDowell Reservation.