Grace Thorpe facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Grace Thorpe
Grace Thorpe Joins WAACS
Born	Grace Frances Thorpe (1921-12-10)December 10, 1921 Yale, Oklahoma
Died	April 1, 2008(2008-04-01) (aged 86)
Nationality	American
Education	University of Tennessee

Grace Thorpe (born December 10, 1921 – died April 1, 2008) was an amazing woman. She was a veteran of World War II, a champion for the environment, and a strong voice for Native Americans. She served in the Women's Army Corps and earned a special award called the Bronze Star Medal. This was for her brave service as a Corporal during the New Guinea campaign.

Grace Thorpe studied at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and the Antioch School of Law. Later, she became a judge for tribal courts. In 1999, she received a Nuclear-Free Future Award. This award honored her work against storing dangerous nuclear waste on Native American lands. Her father was the famous athlete Jim Thorpe, who was an Olympic champion and football player. You can find information about Grace Thorpe's life and work at the National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center.

Grace Thorpe's Early Life

Grace Frances Thorpe was born on December 10, 1921. Her parents were James (Jim) Francis Thorpe and Iva Margaret Miller. Grace was part of several Native American tribes. These included the Potawatomi, Kickapoo, Sac and Fox, and Menominee people. She was even a direct descendant of the famous Sac and Fox chief, Black Hawk.

She was born in Yale, Oklahoma, in the only house her father ever owned. Today, this house is a museum called the “Jim Thorpe House”. Visitors can explore it all year round. Grace was the youngest of four children. Her older sister Gail was born in 1917, her brother James in 1918, and her sister Charlotte in 1919. Sadly, her brother James passed away from polio when he was young.

By the time Grace was born, her father, Jim Thorpe, was already a famous Olympic medalist. When her parents divorced in 1923, Jim moved to California to work in movies. Grace's mother, Iva, took Grace and her sisters to Chicago. Grace lived with both her parents at different times before finishing high school. Her father married two more times, and Grace had four half-brothers. She didn't see them much. However, Grace stayed close with her father and visited him often as he moved around the country.

Military Service in World War II

Grace wanted to travel and help her country during World War II. She hoped to go to places like Paris or Athens. Instead, she was sent to serve as a corporal in the Philippines, Japan, and New Guinea from 1944 to 1945. After leaving the military in 1945, she stayed in Japan.

She worked at General MacArthur Headquarters in Tokyo. There, she was the Chief of the Recruitment Section for Army Civilians. In June 1946, she married Lieutenant Fred W. Seely. They had two children, Dagmar (born 1946) and Paul (born 1948). Both children were born in Japan. In 1950, Grace and Fred divorced. Grace and her children then moved back to the United States. They lived in Pearl River, New York, close to her father's home. In 1967, Grace moved to Arizona. This is when she started focusing more on her activism.

Grace Frances Thorpe passed away on April 1, 2008. She is remembered for her important work in the military, in law, and as an activist.

Joining the Women's Army Corps

In 1943, Thorpe joined the military. She became a part of the Women's Army Corps (WAC). After training at Ft. Oglethorpe, Georgia, she became a Corporal. She worked as a recruiter for the WAC in Tucson and Camp White in Oregon. Later, she was sent to the New Guinea campaign. She also served in the Philippines and Japan. Grace was given a Bronze Star for her service during the battle of New Guinea.

Fighting for Native Rights

The Alcatraz Occupation

In 1969 and 1970, Grace Thorpe joined other Native activists. They took part in the occupation of Alcatraz Island. This island is off the coast of San Francisco. This event brought a lot of attention to the problems Native Americans faced. Activists felt the government was not doing enough to help. The Alcatraz occupation was a very important moment for Native American activism.

Grace Thorpe said in an interview, "Alcatraz was the most important event in the Indian movement." She said it made her put her life savings into the cause. During the occupation, she helped with publicity. She also worked as a negotiator between the activists and the government. She successfully got a generator, a water barge, and ambulance service for the group. After Alcatraz, Thorpe continued to fight for Native rights. She also took part in other occupations. These included Fort Lawton, Washington, in March 1970, and Nike Missile Base near Davis, California, in November 1970.

Working with the National Congress of American Indians

After her involvement in the occupations, Thorpe became a lobbyist. She worked for the National Congress of American Indians. Her main goal was to create more job opportunities for Native families on reservations. She pushed for factories to be built on Native lands. She also focused on training Native workers for these factory jobs. In 1971, she said, "There's no reason we can't train our own people." She believed that Native people should train other Native people.

Founding the National Indian Women's Action Corps

In 1971, Thorpe helped start the National Indian Women's Action Corps. This group aimed to empower Native women. It also worked to strengthen Native family units. She told a journalist in March 1971, "We Indian women decided to start beating the drum for ourselves." She wanted all Native women to join them in solving their problems. The group focused on families because of a sad history. The American government used to remove Native children from their families. They would send them to live in white homes or boarding schools.

Working with the U.S. Congress

In the mid-1970s, Grace Thorpe represented Native interests. She worked with the United States Congress. In 1974, she was a legislative assistant. She worked for the Senate Subcommittee for Indian Affairs. Then, she joined the American Indian Policy Review Board. She worked in Communications and Public Information there. This board was created to improve how Congress made policies about Native groups. It existed from 1975 to 1977.

Grace Thorpe's Legal Career

Thorpe earned a paralegal degree in 1974 from Antioch School of Law. A paralegal helps lawyers with legal work. She then earned her bachelor's degree in American Indian Law. This was in 1980 from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She also worked as a part-time judge. She served in the district court for the Five Tribes of Oklahoma.

Environmental Activism

Grace Thorpe's environmental work began in 1992. She read in a newspaper that her Sac and Fox tribe had accepted money from the government. This money was to study putting radioactive waste on tribal land. The Department of Energy had a program called MRS. It offered money to tribes to temporarily store used nuclear rods. These rods would later be moved to a permanent storage site.

The Sac and Fox tribe, along with sixteen other Native American tribes, took the money. They thought the money would help with high unemployment. They also believed it came with no conditions.

Thorpe researched nuclear waste and its dangers. She also looked into how the money was being used. She found that most of it went to lawyers and consultants. She started working to convince her tribe to leave the program. She followed the rules of the Sac and Fox constitution. She gathered signatures from 50 tribe members for a special meeting. At that meeting on February 29, 1992, 70 out of 75 members voted to leave the MRS program. Only the five elected officials voted to stay. The Sac and Fox were the first tribe to withdraw from the MRS program.

Thorpe continued her fight against what she called "environmental racism." This means unfair environmental practices that harm certain groups of people. In 1993, she helped create the National Environmental Coalition of Native Americans (NECONA). She was its president. She traveled around the country. She taught tribes about the dangers of storing nuclear waste. She also urged them to refuse the MRS program.

Part of her work involved asking tribal leaders to change their constitutions. She wanted them to return to a democratic government. She felt that elected tribal councils, set up by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1934, were easier for the government to pressure. Also in 1993, NECONA teamed up with Nuclear Free America. This group shares information about Nuclear Free Zones worldwide. Together, they started the Nuclear Free Indian Lands Project. This project encouraged tribal governments to pass laws banning nuclear waste dumping and transport on their lands. Within three years of learning about the MRS program, Thorpe convinced 15 of the 17 tribes to withdraw. This included all 11 tribes in her home state of Oklahoma. In 1999, she received a Nuclear-Free Future Award for this important work.

See also

In Spanish: Grace Thorpe para niños

• Private Fuel Storage