Central Pa. Town Appeals To Keep Body Of Jim Thorpe
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The Pennsylvania town where famed athlete Jim Thorpe was laid to rest in 1953 has asked a federal appeals court to throw out a ruling that could clear the way for his remains to be moved to American Indian land in Oklahoma.
Lawyers for the town of Jim Thorpe say that a judge erred when he ruled the town amounts to a museum under the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.
The town's appeal was filed Monday in Philadelphia.
Thorpe's widow agreed to send his body to Pennsylvania after two neighboring towns agreed to build a memorial and name the new town after him.
Thorpe's surviving sons have been fighting to move their father to Sac and Fox land in central Oklahoma.
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