John Thorpe will be the guest speaker at the Jim Thorpe Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony on Saturday, Aug. 17.

The grandson of Jim Thorpe, John was flown to Sweden in 2012 to represent the Thorpe family during the 100-year anniversary of the 1912 Olympics. While there, John dinned with the King and Queen in the Blue Room (where the Noble Peace Prize, among other events, are held).

John has also been flown to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, to represent the Thorpe family during the Jim Thorpe Sports Day annually from 2009-13. He has also been flown every year to represent the Thorpe family for the Jim Thorpe Birthday Celebration.

Along with the Sac & Fox tribe, John’s uncles wanted to take Jim Thorpe’s body out of Jim Thorpe and place him somewhere in Oklahoma.

John’s mother and his aunts, at one time before their death, all agreed that Jim Thorpe’s body should not be moved. John has noted that he doesn’t know why his uncles changed their minds, or why the Sac and Fox tribe would get involved in a family matter.

“I only know what a medicine man told me at Sundance in the sweat lodge with the Sun Dancers,” John recalled. “He said, ‘Your grandfather made contact with me. He told me, ‘I am at peace and want no more pain created in my name.’’

“What else needs to be said or done?”

it was not until after John’s mother and aunt’s death that his uncle Jack and the Sac & Fox tribe pursued the lawsuit. John noted that the Laches Doctrine clearly prohibits this type of behavior.

In a 1990 letter, Jack Thorpe wrote that he retracted his previous statements that were critical of Jim Thorpe’s burial location in Jim Thorpe, and noted, ‘I now feel that the remains of Jim Thorpe are in a good place, and that he is at peace.’

The contents of this letter seem to clearly be at odds by the actions he took in June 2010, when he filed a federal lawsuit against the Borough of Jim Thorpe seeking to have his father’s remains returned under the Native American Graves Protection and Reparation Act.

The letter, dated Aug. 9, 1990, was written by Jack Thorpe to Joe Boyle on letterhead from where John Robert “Jack” Thorpe served as executive director of the Housing Authority of the Sac and Fox Nation in Shawnee, Oklahoma.

Following Boyle’s death on Memorial Day in 1992, his widow, Rita, and son, Joe Boyle Jr., offered the journalist’s sports-related memorabilia to Rudy Bednar and Danny McGinley, two men who joined Boyle to form the Carbon County Sports Hall of Fame.

McGinley and Boyle met with Jack Thorpe when he came to Jim Thorpe in 1990.

In the letter, after several paragraphs in which he thanked a number of people who were welcoming him during his 1990 visit, Jack Thorpe continued in the body of his letter as follows, which is unedited from the original text.

“Joe, a number of years ago I made the statement of wanting the remains of my father returned to Oklahoma. I also said, ‘The bones of my father will not make or break your town, it’s the people living here who will do that.’

“Holding to traditional Indian ways, I took Indian medicine with me for an early morning visit to my father’s grave site. I prayed to the four directions and over my father’s remains. I sat down on the steps of the monument and asked for inner peace and guidance. In the quiet morning hours, I felt the peacefulness of the area. I felt that there was no conflict with my father’s being on the hill side. I have felt the respect and love the people of Jim Thorpe have for my father and the surrounding (community) that makes up the town of Jim Thorpe.

“If you and the people will allow me, I retract my previous statements (except for the part about people making or breaking a town) I now feel that the remains of Jim Thorpe are in a good place and that he is at peace. I think that if dad were living today, he would smile, shake someone’s hand, pat another on the backand say, ‘This is a good place to be.’

“I believe that the town and the people of Jim Thorpe should be proud of what they have been able to build together. I wish some of the things I saw on our visit could be the same here in Oklahoma, I hope that one day we can return to ‘our town’ and be a permanent part of the community and earn the right to be a ‘Thorper.’”

Born in Inglewood, New Jersey, on Dec. 8, 1956, John moved to Greenwich Village in New York before the age of 1 and lived there until he was 12, at which time he moved to Phoenix, Arizona.

John has been living in Lake Tahoe for the past 25 years, and has been a DJ most of his life. His interest in this line of work started after going to work with his father, who was a DJ at WNYC. John would often que and start records for his father’s show.

His other accomplishments include narrating a documentary on Sitting Bull.

John is currently working with Don “Wild Eagle” and Maria Looyd with Mabacol International Preserving Native Culture.