Grace Thorpe

Grace was the youngest of four; her oldest sister Gail Margaret was born in 1917, her brother James in 1918, and her sister Charlotte Marie in 1919.

Her brother James died from polio before reaching adolescence.

By the time of Grace's birth, her father, Jim Thorpe, was already an Olympic medalist.

Grace Francis Thorpe (10 December 1921 – 1 April 2008) was an American environmentalist and Native rights activist.

She served with the Women's Army Corps and received a Bronze Star Medal for her service as a Corporal in the New Guinea campaign.

She attended the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and the Antioch School of Law, and went on to become a tribal district court judge.

Thorpe was born on December 10, 1921, to parents James (Jim) Francis Thorpe (Sac and Fox) and Iva Margaret Miller.

Her tribal heritage included Potawatomi, Kickapoo, Sac and Fox, and Menominee ancestry, and she was a direct descendant of Sac and Fox chief Black Hawk.

She was born in Yale, Oklahoma in the only house her father ever owned.

Now a museum, it is fondly known as the “Jim Thorpe House” and can be visited by tourists year round.

When Iva and Jim divorced in 1923, Jim moved to California to pursue film, while Iva took Charlotte, Gail, and Grace to Chicago.

Grace lived with both parents for several years before finishing high school.

Jim married two more times in his lifetime, giving Grace four half-brothers, with whom she had little interaction.

Grace remained close with her father, however, and visited him frequently as he moved around the country.

Grace wanted to travel and serve her country during World War II.

In 1943, Thorpe enlisted in the military and joined the Women's Army Corps (WAC).

After attending training and graduating from the WAAC Training Center in Ft. Oglethorpe, Georgia, Thorpe was elevated to the rank of Corporal.

She served as a Recruiter for the Women's Army Corps in Tucson and Camp White in Oregon until she was assigned to the New Guinea campaign.

She was subsequently stationed in the Philippines and Japan.

She was later awarded a Bronze Star for her service in the battle of New Guinea.

Though she had envisioned herself in places like Paris or Athens, she was assigned to serve as a corporal in the Philippines, Japan, and New Guinea from 1944 to 1945.

Following an Honorable Discharge in 1945, she remained in Japan.

She began work in Japan at General MacArthur Headquarters as Chief of the Recruitment Section, Department of Army Civilians, Tokyo.

In June 1946, she married Lieutenant Fred W. Seely (1918-2008).

Together they had two children, Dagmar Thorpe (1946) and Paul Thorpe (1948–1964), both born in Japan.

In 1950, the couple divorced, and Thorpe and her children left Japan and returned to the United States to live in Pearl River, New York, near her father's home.

In 1967, Grace moved to Arizona and began to focus on her activism.

In late 1969 and 1970, Grace Thorpe joined a group of Native activists in their occupation of Alcatraz Island off the coast of San Francisco.

This occupation called national attention to a long history of Native grievances that the activists felt the federal government was too slow in addressing.

This occupation represented a watershed moment for Native activism.

Thorpe recalled in a radio interview, “Alcatraz was the catalyst and the most important event in the Indian movement to date.

It made me put my furniture into storage and spend my life savings.” During the occupation she managed publicity for the group and acted as a negotiator between the activists and the federal government.

She successfully secured a generator, water barge, and ambulance service for the group.

After her participation in the occupations of 1969 and 1970, Thorpe went on to be a lobbyist on behalf of the National Congress of American Indians, working especially to further economic opportunities for Native families on reservations by pushing factories to locate on Native land.

After Alcatraz, Thorpe remained involved in agitation for Native rights, participating in further occupations of Fort Lawton, Washington in March 1970 and Nike Missile Base near Davis, California in November 1970.

In 1999, she received a Nuclear-Free Future Award for her opposition to storing toxic and radioactive waste on indigenous land.

Her father was well-known American football player and Olympic athlete Jim Thorpe.

The Grace F. Thorpe Collection is held by the National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center.

Grace Frances Thorpe died on April 1, 2008, from complications following a heart attack.

She is remembered for her military, legal, and activist legacy.