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Sac and Fox Nation launches campaign to bring Jim Thorpe home

Thursday, June 4, 2015

Sac and Fox Nation Chief George Thurman speaks at a press conference to #BringJimThorpeHome. Photo by Mary Kathryn Nagle / Twitter

The Sac and Fox Nation launched a campaign to bring legendary athlete and Olympian Jim Thorpe back home to Oklahoma.

Thorpe, who was a tribal member, was born in Oklahoma. Following his death in 1935, he was going to be buried on Sac and Fox land before his widow interrupted the service and took his body.

Thorpe was eventually buried in a newly-created municipality in Pennsylvania called the Borough of Jim Thorpe. His sons, backed by the tribe, have been fighting to bring him back home ever since.

“This is his family’s wish. This is his own personal wish,” Chief George Thurman said at a press conference for the Bring Jim Thorpe Home campaign on Wednesday, the Associated Press reported. “To come home to Oklahoma, Sac and Fox country to be buried.”

Jim Thorpe. Photo from Wikipedia

The tribe and Thorpe's sons are the plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the Borough of Jim Thorpe. They secured a major victory in April 2013 when a federal judge ordered the municipality to return the remains under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.

But Thorpe never came home because the borough took the case to 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals. A decision from October 2014 freed the municipality from complying with NAGPRA by claiming that reburial of this nature was never envisioned when Congress passed the law in 1990.

"NAGPRA was intended as a shield against further injustices to Native Americans, Judge Theodore McKee wrote for the majority. "It was not intended to be wielded as a sword to settle familial disputes within Native American families."

The plaintiffs are now asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the dispute. A petition was filed on Tuesday.

"Why do the religious and cultural traditions of Native Americans continue to be disrespected?" the Native American Rights Fund stated. "This is a story of fairness, equality and justice. And it’s time to Bring Jim Thorpe Home."

The Supreme Court justices only accept a small number of petitions presented to them. They have never ruled in a NAGPRA dispute in the history of the law.