The powwow grounds of the Sac and Fox Nation.


took his body to Tulsa, while looking for a suitable town for his burial site. The City of Shawnee had raised money to have Thorpe’s body brought from California, but there were not sufficient commitments toward construction of a $100,000 memorial or any of his widow’s other large plans for an adjoining motel to be called Jim Thorpe Tepees or a Jim Thorpe Memorial Cancer and Heart Foundation Hospital. The disrespect for tribal customs and traditions is remembered to this day in Sac and Fox country as a serious injustice committed by the non-Indian world.


MAUCH CHUNK AND EAST MAUCH CHUNK BECOME THE BOROUGH OF JIM THORPE


Jim Thorpe playing with his sons. J 62 AMERICAN INDIAN SUMMER/FALL 2014


im Thorpe, Pa., started out as two adjacent mining towns – Mauch Chunk and East Mauch Chunk. Beginning as early as 1790, the coal mining and railroad industries sustained this area for more than a century, and at one point Mauch Chunk


was known as the wealthiest town – per capita – in America. When coal was supplanted by oil, and trucks and cars replaced railroads, this area faded from its former status. By the 1950s, the region was economically depressed. In the days following Jim Thorpe’s death, Patricia Thorpe began


shopping her husband’s remains to a city or town that would best meet her demands. After Oklahoma cancelled a bill that would have designated $100,000 for a Thorpe memorial, Mauch Chunk and East


PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE SAC AND FOX NATION


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