Carlos Montezuma was a Yavapai Apache physician who lived from 1866 to 1923. He graduated from high school, college, and medical school in Illinois, and established his medical practice in Chicago in 1896. While we do not know if this location at 100 N State Street was his home or his office, the majority of his correspondence was directed to this address.

Having worked as a physician for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, or BIA, Montezuma saw how the federal system failed to fully address the needs of Native people. He was among those in the early 20th century who believed in the need to abolish the Bureau of Indian Affairs, or BIA. Montezuma published a newsletter called Wassaja that frequently critiqued the BIA, and he was a founder of a national advocacy organization called the Society of American Indians (SAI). SAI, was a national intertribal advocacy group for Indigenous rights in the early 1900s. Members were often middle class Native professionals like Carlos Montezuma. While there were different opinions within the organization, SAI members often believed that some amount of assimilation into white society was necessary for Native people to be successful. Others outside of the SAI (and some within it) did not believe assimilation was the answer.

Proceed north three blocks north on State, stopping in front of the Chicago Theatre (.3 miles).