Carlos Montezuma, M.D.: A Yavapai American Hero

Arnica Publishing, 2005. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. 7x1x9. In Very Good+ condition and Very Good+ dustjacket. Impeccably researched and rich in detail, Carlos Montezuma, M.D. documents the life of one of the first Native American medical doctors. Carlos Montezuma or Wassaja (c. 1866 – January 31, 1923) was a Yavapai-Apache Native American, activist and a founding member of the Society of American Indians. His birth name, Wassaja, means "Signaling" or "Beckoning" in his native tongue. Wassaja was kidnapped by Pima raiders along with other children to be sold or bartered. Wassaja was then purchased by an Italian photographer Carlo Gentile in Adamsville, for thirty silver dollars. Gentile renamed him "Carlos Montezuma". Montezuma was the first Native American student at the University of Illinois and Northwestern University, and only the second Native American ever to earn a medical degree in an American University after Susan La Flesche Picotte. Wassaja was the first Native American male to receive a medical degree. Until his death Wassaja fought to support the rights of his Yavapai people and other Native Americans. In late nineteenth-century Chicago, he was presented with opportunities, both educational and social, that had previously been unavailable to his people. Leon Speroff paints a full and well-rounded picture of the life and times of this remarkable man.