Mauch Chunk were positioned to acquire Thorpe’s remains. His widow went to Mauch Chunk and East Mauch Chunk and struck a lucrative deal for all parties. So long as the towns paid for his body, interred his body and maintained a memorial, the towns could have the Jim Thorpe name. Extensive plans were made to use his body to reverse the towns’
economic woes. The plans called not only for a mausoleum, but also for an extensive commercialization of the Jim Thorpe name, including a football shrine, a museum, a 500-bed hospital, an Olympic stadium and a sporting goods factory. Patricia Thorpe signed the deal to en- sure that the towns were combined and renamed as the Borough of Jim Thorpe, and she reportedly was paid expenses and perhaps other money to further seal the deal. The plans to save the towns, however, faced obstacles from the be-
ginning. It took three years for the Borough to build the mausoleum, and most of the other majestic plans never materialized. In the mean- time, Jim Thorpe’s remains continued to be vandalized. Locals opened up the casket so that they could examine the body, believing the casket was too heavy. Then, a group of protesters tried to pry the coffin out of the crypt, with the intent of dumping it on the front porch of the home of one of the promoters of the grand burial initiative. Two referenda were called to reverse the towns’ name change as
the grand economic development plans initially failed to pan out. Before the vote for one, vandals defaced Thorpe’s mausoleum with a hammer. One community leader stated, “Mention Jim Thorpe and nobody knows what you’re talking about,” to which he added in a Sports Illustrated interview, “[a]ll we got is a dead Indian.”
Today, the Borough of Jim Thorpe primarily survives on tourism,
with the Thorpe mausoleum just one of the area’s tourist attractions. Other aspects of the economy include rafting, kayaking, hiking and biking. The town maintains Victorian mansions, railroad museums and quaint shopping boutiques. Some Borough people believe that acquiring Jim Thorpe’s remains was the point at which its economy began to shift for the better, and they therefore have an interest in keep- ing his remains. They believe they are properly honoring Thorpe and want to continue to do so.
NAGPRA AND THE LAWSUIT
Many skeletons and body parts were displayed in museum demonstra- tions as a show of racial superiority of white people. Collecting crews from America’s many museums would steal items from American In- dian graves for collection and display. State and federal law contributed to the unequal treatment of Native burials and funerary objects prior to NAGPRA. In particular,
P E SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 63
rior to the passage of the Native American Graves Protec- tion and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), it was commonplace, and even federal policy, to collect and trade Native bones, skulls, burial clothes and jewelry and other funerary items.
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