Jim Thorpe’s childhood home.
JIM THORPE, THE PERSON, AND JIM THORPE, THE BOROUGH
J
ames Francis Thorpe was born on Sac and Fox Indian terri- tory in Oklahoma on May 27, 1887. He was Thunder Clan and was given the name Wa-tha-huk, meaning “The Bright Path the Lightning Makes as It Goes Across the Sky,” a fitting name
for the person who became one of the greatest athletes the world has known. Thorpe was the son of Hiram Thorpe, who was Sac and Fox and Irish, and Charlotte Vieux, who was Potawatomi. The Sac and Fox were removed from Kansas in 1869 and moved to Oklahoma, where Jim Thorpe grew up and learned many of the Sac and Fox customary skills tending to his family farm. Like so many other American Indians in that era, Thorpe lived in
a dual world of shifting identity, discouraged from speaking his Native language and instructed in English and Christianity only. Eventually, he was sent to boarding schools that housed Native children and ran away from several of them. In 1904, he was sent to the infamous Carl- isle Indian Industrial School located in Carlisle, Pa. It was at Carlisle that Jim became a standout athlete in track and
field and football. President Eisenhower, in a 1961 speech, recalled seeing him play: “Here and there, there are some people who are supremely endowed…. My memory goes back to Jim Thorpe. He never practiced in his life, and he could do anything better than any other football player I ever saw.” By 1912, Carlisle had won the national championship in football, and Thorpe was an All-American athlete in both football and track and field. That summer, Thorpe won gold medals in the 1912 Stockholm Olympics with dominating performances in the pentathlon and de-
cathlon. But American athletic officials, including Thorpe’s football coach at Carlisle, Glenn Scobey “Pop” Warner, returned the medals after some in the press raised questions about Thorpe’s amateur status. The scandal revolved around an elitist and now discredited standard of amateurism, and the removal and decades-long refusal to return the medals was wrong on so many levels, moral, procedural and even per- sonal, that it is almost a whitewash to suggest that it was fueled by racial bias. Thorpe, however, became a national hero in the United States. As ESPN recognized, “Thorpe’s name was so big, he received that most American of honors – a ticker-tape parade in New York City.” His med- als were eventually restored, but long after he passed away. Ultimately, Thorpe’s stardom faded and he moved to California,
where he worked various odd jobs in manual labor. When he was photographed on a county job in Los Angeles by local newspapers, he was offered several small acting parts in Hollywood. Cast as an extra in more than 60 films, including the classic King Kong, he still struggled with financial troubles and alcoholism. Thorpe eventually left Cali- fornia and returned to Oklahoma and spent his final years moving between the two states. Prior to his passing, Thorpe repeatedly told members of his Sac and Fox family that he wanted to be buried in Sac and Fox country in Oklahoma. Patricia Thorpe initially wanted nothing to do with her husband’s
burial, and donations of money and mortuary services were enlisted to prepare his body for burial in Shawnee, Okla., near his birthplace. Thorpe’s Thunder Clan and other mourners gathered in a lodge near Shawnee for the beginning of his three-day ceremony, which was to be conducted in accordance with Sauk burial customs and traditions. Before the ceremony could be concluded, Patricia Thorpe, accom- panied by Oklahoma State Police, removed Jim Thorpe’s body. She
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 61
PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE SAC AND FOX NATION
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100
