"The Olympics always will mean Jim Thorpe and Billy Mills to most American Indians. And when Thorpe (1912) and Mills (1964) stepped up to the podium to get their gold, you almost could hear the ancient people trill in honor of these men.

Mills' win stands as one of the most stunning upsets in modern sports. He won the 1,000-meter race at the Olympics in Tokyo. He is Oglala from Pine Ridge, S.D.

Thorpe, who was Sac and Fox, was called the "greatest athlete in the world" by Sweden's King Gustav V at the Stockholm games and greatest all-around athlete for the first 50 years of this century by The Associated Press in 1950."

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DORREEN YELLOW BIRD COLUMN: Olympics brings thoughts of Thorpe, Mills (The Grand Forks Herald 8/21)