Carlos Montezuma (ca. 1865-1923), was a Yavapai (Mohave-Apache) university-educated medical doctor and political leader, who bridged both cultures.

Contributed by Thomas L. Altherr, Professor of History and American Studies, Metropolitan State College of Denver, Denver, Colorado

Name variations: Hejelweiikam (Left Alone) during Pima captivity in the early 1870s. Born Wassaja (signalling or beckoning) sometime in the 1860s among Yavapai in southern or central Arizona; died on January 23, 1923, at Fort McDowell Reservation; son of Coluyevah and Thilgeyah; married: Marie Keller, September 19, 1913; children: none.

Sometime in the mid-1860s, perhaps as early as 1865 or as late as 1867, Carlos Montezuma was born as Wassaja to Yavapai parents in a band in central or southern Arizona. As that period was quite turbulent, given Anglo-mining expansion and settlement and warfare among the southern Arizona tribes, Wassaja's childhood was far from uninterrupted play. Indeed in 1871, the Yavapai's longtime enemies, the Pimas, attacked Wassaja's band...