The Chemawa American, January 25, 1928, Image 1

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The Chemawa American
Printed at Chemawa, Oregon, and Devoted to the Interests of Indian Education
Vol. XXIX
Wednesday, Jan. 25, 1928
4 Famous American Indians $
DR. CARLOS MONTEZUMA
By JOSEPH ALEXANDER, Chemawa Student
There are few stranger careers than that of Carlos
Montezuma, a full-blood Mojave Apache Indian.
The history of his life reads like a thrilling chapter
from a dime novel. “Captured in a massacre which
almost wiped out his tribe, carried off into slavery,
sold to an alien, educated among those whom he had
been taught to regard as blood enemies, and then to
win high honors at the hands of his benefactors,” was
Dr. Montezuma’s life in a brief statement.
Dr. Montezuma was born at Weaver’s ranch, a short
distance from Superior, Arizona. He was dragged
about the first two or three years of his life from one
place to another, as his tribe was in continuous war­
fare with the American soldiers. During that time
he was alternately carried from the Grand Canon
country to the lower reaches of Señora, Mexico. Just
as it appeared that his life was to be cast in a more
peaceful channel the most stirring episode of his life
occurred. Arrangements were made whereby his tribe
was to enter into a truce with the government. While
men of the Mojave-Apache tribe were counseling with
the army officers a raiding party of Pima Indians
swooped down upon an unprotected camp of a large
number of women and children, which was located a
few miles northeast of Phoenix.
The Pima band killed all the women and children
that were unable to escape. A few fleet-footed ones
ran and hid and in this way saved their lives. As the
Pima band was riding away the boy began crying
and they found him and did not have the heart to
kill him, so they took him to their village a short
distance south of the Gila River in the Salt River
Valley.
Dr. Montezuma’s parents were victims of this mas­
sacre. He was then little more than a baby. He was
kept by his captors until he was four or five years old.
As a child he then attracted the attention of a Chicago
man who was touring the country and he purchased
him from the Pimas for thirty dollars. He took him
and gave him all possible educational advantages. He
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graduated from the University of Illinois, then from
the medical department of the Northwestern Univer­
sity and later from the University of Chicago. He
graduated with high honors from the University of
Chicago and took up the practice of medicine in that
city, where he practiced for some twenty-five years.
At the time of his death he was recognized as an author­
ity on intestinal disorders.
He was also a physician in the Indian Service for
some years, during which time he was for two or more
years at the Carlisle Indian School.
Dr. Montezuma passed away on Jan. 31, 1923, at
McDowell, Arizona, where he had gone hoping to re­
cover from tuberculosis. His last illness was brief.
The climate of his birth state did not help him as it
was hoped it would.
Funeral services were held at the First Baptist
Church in Phoenix, at which Major York, of the Unit­
ed States Army and a personal friend of Dr. Monte­
zuma; Colonel McClindock, State Historian of Arizona,
and Reverend Dr. Percival spoke. The day follow­
ing his remains were interred at McDowell. At his
funeral Dr. Percival said in part:
“The life of Dr. Montezuma symbolized for us the
wonderful relationship between two peoples, the red
and white, the Indian and the American, the first and
the last American. His life links together in a mar­
velous way the past and the present of our country,
its oldest savagery with its newest civilization. He
was not an old man, and yet within the half century
of his life he has run all the gamut of primitive tribal
life, of savage warfare and massacre, of capture and
slavery, of travel across the great plains to the cities
of the east, where he grew up with the metropolis of
the middle west, studying in our schools, learning the
lessons of the streets of the big city, fighting the battle
for higher education, that he might go back into the
slums of the city and the reservations of the west and
help heal and uplift his own people and the newer
immigrants to these shores. He saw the worst of our
civilization, but he chose the best.
“His life becomes a two-fold lesson to us today.
To the Indians he is an example of what any Indian
may become who will avoid the worst and seek the
best in our civilization.
‘ ‘To the American he is a reminder of what capacity
the Indian possesses.
“His life says to us: ‘Give to my brothers the same
opportunity which came to me and they, too, can be-
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