Carlos Montezuma's Wassaja Newsletter
The Carlos Montezuma collection contains several digitized volumes of the Wassaja newsletter that Yavapai intellectual and activist Carlos Montezuma, MD (1866-1923) self-published during the years 1916-1922. Wassaja means “signaling” or “beckoning,” and is Montezuma’s Yavapai birth name. The newsletter was a vital source of news about Indian affairs in an era that had few outlets for such information and contains valuable reports directly from people living within the Indian reservation system. As a prominent figure in the struggle for Indian rights who played a role in the founding of the Society of American Indians, Montezuma was an intellectual leader against Indian Bureau mismanagement; he was notorious for advocating an end to the reservation system and the abolition of the BIA. This collection helps to document different facets of Montezuma’s career as an Indian rights leader and his relationship to his home community of Fort McDowell.
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Montezuma writes to Sloan about the impact of American politics on Indians and his firm belief that Indians are increasing as a people and will someday have their own Presidential candidate: also mentions printing problems in the latest Wassaja issue.
Letter to Montezuma from the Reverend Red Fox Skiuhushu, on letterhead of his association, the American Indian Tepee Christian Mission, an "interdenominational home for Indian children while they attend public school", in White Swan, Washington. He describes his health, his subscription to Wassaja, and his opposition to the Indian Bureau.
Bill for the printing of 3,000 folders to hold the Wassaja Newsletter and 3,000 #10 Manila envelopes. Description reads "Paid", Cost of $13.75.
Bill for 3000 subscription blanks of the Wassaja newsletter and 3000 Manila envelopes. Description reads "Received payment in full."
A bill for 3,000 copies of the Wassaja Newsletter, sent to Dr. Carlos Montezuma by the Hawthorne Press, 115-117 E. South Water St., Chicago. Description reads "3000 4-page Wassaja printed in black ink."
Bill for the printing of 1,000 copies of the Wassaja newsletter, sent to Dr. Carlos Montezuma by the Hawthorne Press, 115-117 E. South Water St., Chicago. Invoice reads "1000 4 page Wassaja boklets"(sic), and "Please send back"
