Relatives of famed American Indian
athlete Jim Thorpe plan to go to court to win the return of his
body from a Pennsylvania town that changed its name to provide him
a final resting place – even though he never set foot there.
Jim Thorpe attended school in Carlisle, Pa. and later won gold
medals in the 1912 Olympics and played pro baseball and football.
His widow buried him in the eastern Pennsylvania borough after
leaders vowed to change the town’s name and build him a monument,
which they did.
But family members want Thorpe reburied in Oklahoma. Their
Missouri attorney says the suit to be filed this month in
Philadelphia will cite a 1990 federal law requiring the return of
American Indian cultural items and remains to their peoples.
But Jim Thorpe Mayor Ronald Confer calls the idea “incredible”
after a half-century that and predicts no on in the town will
support it.
