Background
Juan was born in San Tan, Pinal Company, Arizona April 22, 1892 to Joseph and Mary B. Juan. Mathew grew up in the small agricultural town of Sacaton, Arizona (also the capital of the Gila River Indian Community).
Juan was born in San Tan, Pinal Company, Arizona April 22, 1892 to Joseph and Mary B. Juan. Mathew grew up in the small agricultural town of Sacaton, Arizona (also the capital of the Gila River Indian Community).
Juan was the first Arizonan to die in the war. Juan was a Pima Indian from the Gila River Indian Community. He stayed there until he reached high school and left for the Sherman Institute (an Indian boarding school) in Riverside, California.
Upon graduation, he joined a travelling circus.
In June 1917 Juan registered his Selective Service Card with the local draft board in Wichita Falls, Texas. Six months later he was drafted.
He joined the 6th Company 1st Infantry Training Regiment on December 11, 1917.
He boarded the troopship Steamship Tuscania in January 1918, bound for Le Havre, France.
Juan was rescued and taken to Ireland, and eventually made his way to the location of his regiment"s encampment. On May 21, 1918 Juan was transferred to the 1st Division, 2nd Infantry Brigade, 28th Infantry, Company K. At 6:45 Department of Administration and Management Tuesday May 28, 1918, the 28th Infantry attacked the German occupied area near Cantigny, France. His body was temporarily buried in France.
In 1921 the United States. Military exhumed the body and at the request of his mother, returned him home to Arizona.
His remains were delivered to the Fisher Funeral Home in Casa Grande, Arizona where preparations were made for the final burial at the Cook Memorial Church yard in Sacaton, Arizona. He was buried with honors April 9, 1921.
Juan was the first Arizonian to be killed in World War I. Michael Sullivan, a stonemason from Casa Grande, built a monument dedicated to in the town of Sacaton. The monument, which located in the Matthew B. Juan-Ira Hayes Veterans Memorial Park of Sacaton, is made of fieldstones.
The Tuscania was torpedoed by a German U-boat February 5, 1918 in the North Channel (United Kingdom), and 200 American Troops perished along with an additional 65 crew members of the Tuscania.
