Lawyers for the borough argued that a judge misapplied a law that Congress intended to address the theft of American Indian remains from gravesites long ago.
The Pennsylvania borough where famed athlete Jim Thorpe was laid to rest six decades ago asked a federal appeals court Monday to throw out a ruling that could clear the way for his remains to be moved to American Indian land in Oklahoma.
A federal district judge erred when he ruled the borough of Jim Thorpe amounts to a museum under the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, the borough’s lawyers wrote in an appeal seeking to block the removal of the athlete’s body.
Thorpe was a football, baseball and track star who won the decathlon and pentathlon in the 1912 Olympics. He died without a will in 1953 at age 64.
After Oklahoma’s governor balked at the cost of a planned monument to the athlete, Thorpe's third wife, Patricia, had his body removed in the midst of his funeral service and sent it to northeastern Pennsylvania, where she struck a deal with two merging towns -- Mauch Chunk and East Mauch Chunk -- to build a memorial and name the new town after him. His remains are kept in a mausoleum surrounded by statues and interpretive signage.
Thorpe’s surviving sons have been fighting to move the body to Sac and Fox land in the state where he was born. In April, U.S. District Judge Richard Caputo ruled in favor of Bill Thorpe, his brother Richard, and the Sac and Fox.
Lawyers for the borough -- a tourism hotspot in the Pocono Mountains -- argued that Caputo misapplied a law that Congress intended to address the theft of American Indian remains from gravesites long ago.
“The intent of Congress was to return human remains of archaeological interest ... not to disturb modern-day burial sites” of 20th-century American Indians like Thorpe, the appeal said.
Stephen Ward, a lawyer for Thorpe’s sons, said the law isn’t as narrow as the borough makes it out to be.
“This is broadly written civil rights legislation ... adopted to address a number of problems, the overriding one being the lack of respect for Indian peoples’ right to bury their own according to their desire,” he said Monday, after the borough’s appeal was filed with the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The appeal also said Caputo’s ruling trampled on a valid contract between the town and Patricia Thorpe’s estate and served to “negate this private family decision” about where he was to be buried.
“Here, a surviving spouse buried her husband in the manner she chose, as any other surviving widow would and should be able to do,” the appeal said.
Thorpe’s grandsons have sided with the borough that bears his name and are expected to file legal arguments in the case soon.
Jim Thopre had a great day competing in 1909 at Lafayette College's March Field, according to thoprefilm.com. He won the broad jump, high jump, shot put, discus, 120 hurdles and 220 hurdles, the website says. He finished third in the 100-yard dash, the website says.
From Thorpe's obituary in the New York Times:
"In his track days Carlisle was booked to meet the Lafayette team at Easton. A welcoming committee was puzzled when only two Indians got off the train.
"'Where's your team?' they asked.
"'This is the team,' replied Thorpe.
"'Only two of you?'
"'Only one,' Jim said with a smile. 'This fellow's the manager.'"
It's also been reported that it was coach Pop Warner who said, "Here they are" when asked about the team of two.
Louis Tewanima won the two-mile race that day, the website says, and there were actually seven runners on the Carlisle India Industrial School squad.
"After it was all over, Thorpe couldn't tell you how he did it," Lafayette coach Harold Anson Bruce said, according to an ESPN retelling. "Everything came natural."
Thorpe also led Carlisle to a 19-0 football win over Lafayette in 1911 in Easton, according to Jim Thorpe: World's Greatest Athlete. He scored a touchdown, set up two others and kicked a 35-yard field goal, the book says.
Lafayette had been undefeated and only gave up five points that season before the Oct. 28 game, sports-reference.com reports.