The University of Arizona Press
Date: Wednesday, February 28, 2024
Time: 3 – 4 p.m., AZT
Where: Register for Zoom link
David Martínez discusses his book, My Heart is Bound Up with Them: How Carlos Montezuma Became the Voice of a Generation in a virtual “Beyond the Bookshelf” event. Martínez is professor of American Indian studies at Arizona State University (ASU) and is enrolled in the Gila River Indian Community. He will be joined in conversation with Social Sciences Librarian Brad Vogus and Vina Begay, assistant librarian with the Labriola National American Indian Data Center. ASU Library hosts this event.
About the book:
Carlos Montezuma is well known as an influential Indigenous figure of the turn of the twentieth century. While some believe he was largely interested only in enabling Indians to assimilate into mainstream white society, Montezuma’s image as a staunch assimilationist changes dramatically when viewed through the lens of his Yavapai relatives at Fort McDowell in Arizona.
Through his diligent research and transcription of the letters archived in the Carlos Montezuma Collection at Arizona State University Libraries, David Martínez offers a critical new perspective on Montezuma’s biography and legacy. During an attempt to force the Fort McDowell Yavapai community off of their traditional homelands north of Phoenix, the Yavapai community members and leaders wrote to Montezuma pleading for help. It was these letters and personal correspondence from his Yavapai cousins George and Charles Dickens, as well as Mike Burns that sparked Montezuma’s desperate but principled desire to liberate his Yavapai family and community—and all Indigenous people—from the clutches of an oppressive Indian Bureau.
