Editing Jim Thorpe (section)

===Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania===
[[File:Jim Thorpe Statue.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=Statue of Jim Thorpe dashing while carrying a football in front of a group of trees|One of the two statues of Thorpe located in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania]]

After Thorpe's funeral was held at St. Benedict's Catholic Church in Shawnee, Oklahoma,<ref>{{Cite news |date=April 13, 1953 |title=Jim Thorpe Body Arrives Home For Burial Rite |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1454&dat=19530413&id=1G9gAAAAIBAJ&pg=5892,2267660&hl=en |access-date=July 14, 2016 |work=The Wilmington News |page=9 |agency=United Press}}</ref> his body lay in state at Fairview Cemetery. Residents had paid to have it returned to Shawnee by train from California.{{Sfn|Buford|2012|pp=367–369}} The people began a fund-raising effort to erect a memorial for Thorpe at the town's athletic park. Local officials had asked state legislators for funding, but a bill that included $25,000 for their proposal was vetoed by Governor [[Johnston Murray]].{{Sfn|Wheeler|1979|pp=228–229}}

Meanwhile, Thorpe's third wife, unbeknownst to the rest of his family, took Thorpe's body and had it shipped to Pennsylvania when she heard that the small Pennsylvania towns of [[Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania|Mauch Chunk and East Mauch Chunk]] were seeking to attract business.<ref name="wsj">{{Cite news |last=Hagerty |first=James R. |date=July 21, 2010 |title=Is There Life After Jim Thorpe For Jim Thorpe, Pa.? |work=[[The Wall Street Journal]] |page=A14}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Zucchino |first=David |date=October 18, 2013 |title=Jim Thorpe, Pa., fights to keep its namesake |url=https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-jim-thorpe-body-20131018-dto-htmlstory.html |access-date=September 8, 2024 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}</ref> She made a deal with officials which, according to Thorpe's son Jack, was made by the widowed Patricia for monetary considerations.<ref>{{Cite web |date=September 17, 2010 |title=Frank Deford of ''Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel'' interviews Jack Thorpe |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXogaDT5Zm0 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/iXogaDT5Zm0 |archive-date=December 11, 2021 |access-date=July 9, 2012 |publisher=HBO (official channel on YouTube)}}{{cbignore}}</ref> The towns "bought" Thorpe's remains, erected a monument to him at the grave, merged, and renamed the newly united town in his honor as [[Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania]]. Thorpe had never been there.{{Sfn|O'Hanlon-Lincoln|2004|p=148}} The monument site contains his tomb,<ref name="body" /> two statues of him in athletic poses,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hedes |first=Jarrad |date=May 19, 2017 |title=Jim Thorpe plans to add third Olympian statue |url=https://www.tnonline.com/2017/may/19/jim-thorpe-plans-add-third-olympian-statue |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180119120949/https://www.tnonline.com/2017/may/19/jim-thorpe-plans-add-third-olympian-statue |archive-date=January 19, 2018 |website=Lehighton Times News}}</ref> and historical markers recounting his life story.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Loverro |first=Thom |author-link=Thom Loverro |date=August 2, 2013 |title=Jim Thorpe sleeps on – for now – in town where everyone knows his name |url=https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2013/aug/02/jim-thorpe-pennsylvania-football-hall-fame |access-date=September 8, 2024 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>

In June 2010, Jack Thorpe filed a federal lawsuit against the borough of Jim Thorpe, seeking to have his father's remains returned to his homeland and re-interred near other family members in Oklahoma. Citing the [[Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act]], Jack was arguing to bring his father's remains to the reservation in Oklahoma, to be buried near those of his father, sisters and brother, a mile from the place he was born. He claimed that the agreement between his stepmother and Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, borough officials was made against the wishes of other family members, who want him buried in Native American land.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Lee, Peggy |date=June 24, 2010 |title=Son Of Jim Thorpe Sues for His Remains |url=http://www.wnep.com/wnep-carb-son-sues-jim-thorpe-body,0,1168347.story |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120301142403/http://www.wnep.com/wnep-carb-son-sues-jim-thorpe-body%2C0%2C1168347.story |archive-date=March 1, 2012 |access-date=June 25, 2010 |work=wnep.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=June 25, 2010 |title=Jim Thorpe's son sues town of Jim Thorpe over location of athlete's remains |url=https://www.pennlive.com/midstate/2010/06/jim_thorpes_son_sues_town_of_j.html |access-date=September 8, 2024 |website=Patriot News |language=en |agency=The Associated Press}}</ref> Jack Thorpe died at 73 on February 22, 2011.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Zagofsky |first=Al |date=February 24, 2011 |title=Jim Thorpe's son Jack dies |url=http://www.tnonline.com/2011/feb/24/jim-thorpes-son-jack-dies |access-date=July 9, 2012 |website=Lehighton Times News}}</ref>

In April 2013, U.S. District Judge Richard Caputo ruled that Jim Thorpe borough amounts to a museum under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act ("NAGPRA"), and therefore is bound by that law. A lawyer for Bill and Richard Thorpe said the men would pursue the legal process to have their father's remains returned to Sac and Fox land in central Oklahoma.<ref>{{Cite news |date=April 21, 2013 |title=Judge Sides With Sons About Legendary Athlete Jim Thorpe's Remains |url=http://www.newson6.com/story/22028957/judge-orders-legendary-athlete-jim-thorpes-remains |access-date=April 21, 2013 |publisher=[[KOTV-DT]]}}</ref> On October 23, 2014, the [[United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit]] reversed Judge Caputo's ruling. The appeals court held that Jim Thorpe borough is not a "museum", as that term is used in NAGPRA, and that the plaintiffs therefore could not invoke that federal statute to seek reinterment of Thorpe's remains.<ref name="body">{{Cite news |date=October 23, 2014 |title=Pennsylvania town named for Jim Thorpe can keep athlete's body |url=http://www.cbsnews.com/news/pennsylvania-town-named-for-jim-thorpe-can-keep-athletes-body/ |access-date=October 24, 2014 |publisher=[[CBS News]]}}</ref> In NAGPRA language, "'museum' means any institution or State or local government agency (including any institution of higher learning) that receives Federal funds and has possession of, or control over, Native American cultural items."<ref>{{Cite web |title=25 USC Ch. 32: Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation |url=http://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title25-chapter32&edition=prelim |access-date=September 8, 2024 |website=Office of the Law Revision Counsel}}</ref> The Court of Appeals directed the trial court to enter a judgment in favor of the borough.<ref name="body" /> The appeals court said Pennsylvania law allows the plaintiffs to ask a state court to order reburial of Thorpe's remains, but noted, "once a body is interred there is great reluctance in permitting same to be moved, absent clear and compelling reasons for such a move."<ref>{{cite court |litigants=John Thorpe (et al) v. Borough of Jim Thorpe |opinion=No. 13-2446 |court=3d Cir. |url= http://www2.ca3.uscourts.gov/opinarch/132446p.pdf |access-date=September 9, 2016}}</ref> On October 5, 2015, the [[United States Supreme Court]] refused to hear the matter, effectively bringing the legal process to an end.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Hall |first=Peter |date=October 6, 2015 |title=U.S. Supreme Court: Jim Thorpe's body to remain in town that bears his name |url=http://www.poconorecord.com/article/20151006/NEWS/151009689 |access-date=October 13, 2015 |work=Pocono Record}}</ref>