Supreme Court asked to resolve Jim Thorpe burial case

Jim Thorpe's sons asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday to overturn a ruling that prevents them from moving the great American Indian athlete's remains from the Pennsylvania town that bears his name to the Oklahoma tribal lands where he was born.

In a 128-page filing, William Thorpe and Richard Thorpe, as well as the Sac and Fox Nation of Oklahoma, argued that a Philadelphia-based appeals court last year wrongly interpreted a law designed to protect the remains of American Indians.

Thorpe, a 1912 Olympic gold medalist and three-sport star, did not want to be buried in Pennsylvania, his sons argue, and keeping his remains there contradicts his wishes, violates the law, and benefits a town he never visited.

"For too long, Native Americans have been disregarded in our society," William Thorpe said in a statement. "In taking this case, the Supreme Court cannot only help our family finally have closure, but it can help prevent continuing discrimination against Native Americans across the country."

At issue is the interpretation of the Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act. Passed by Congress in 1990 to prevent American Indian remains and artifacts from being exploited, the statute requires museums and other federally funded agencies to return bodies or other items to descendants or tribes that request them.

The Thorpe sons say their father's body was buried in Pennsylvania only after his third wife interrupted his burial service in Oklahoma in 1953 and sold his remains to a Carbon County coal town, then named Mauch Chunk, that paid her $500.

In 2010, the sons sued the town, now named Jim Thorpe, seeking repatriation of his body to Oklahoma, said the sons' lawyer, Stephen Ward. U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo ruled in their favor in 2013, citing the 1990 statute.

But last October, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit said Caputo was mistaken in applying that law, calling it "clearly absurd." Thorpe's wife, the court ruled, had legal standing to determine where her husband should be buried.

In a conference call with reporters Tuesday, the sons' lawyer said his clients were hopeful the highest court would take up their appeal. Many American Indians wrestle with securing the artifacts or bodies of their ancestors, he said, and few have the clout of the Thorpe family.

"This case represents a long struggle by Indian people and tribes to have their religious practices, burial practices . . . respected by the greater society in America," Ward said.