I have previously discussed the ongoing legal disputes surrounding the body of legendary sports legend Jim Thorpe. Back in October the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal brought by the athlete’s sons who wanted their fathers remains to be moved from Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, over to sacred tribal burial grounds in Oklahoma. At issue was a Federal law called the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). The statute requires museums that have Native American remains to go through a proceeding that would determine if those remains are to be returned to the family or tribe of the decedent. This extensive illustrative article discusses NAGPRA in detail and how it applied to the Jim Thorpe case. In the end the courts had determined that NAGPRA did not apply to Jim Thorpe’s remains.
See Rachel Proctor May, Thorpe’s Body, Life Of The Law, October 20, 2015.
