May 6 2024.
President Biden named nineteen recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Among those honored was Jim Thorpe. Jim Thorpe (d. 1953) was the first Enrolled Tribal Member of a First Nations Tribe in the United States to win an Olympic gold medal. The country’s original multi-sport superstar, he went on to play professional football, baseball, and basketball while breaking down barriers on and off the field. Jim Thorpe was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom on May 3, 2024. Thorpe's father, Hiram Thorpe, had an Irish father and a Sac and Fox Indian mother. His mother, Charlotte Vieux, was the daughter of Citizen Potawatomi Nation members Elizabeth and Jacob Vieux, and was a descendant of Chief Louis Vieux. Thorpe was raised as a Sac and Fox. Thorpe was born May 22 1887 according to his baptism records and lived on this Earth until 1953. The official Sac and Fox Nation Website.
