The record was corrected.

The Man Who Represented His Country Before It Made Him A Citizen

One of the dimensions of Jim Thorpe’s story that the standard retelling underemphasizes is the specific citizenship status of the man who won those gold medals under the American flag in 1912.

Native Americans were not recognized as citizens of the United States until 1924, when the Indian Citizenship Act was passed.

Jim Thorpe competed in the Stockholm Olympics in 1912, won two gold medals representing the United States, was celebrated with a ticker-tape parade down Broadway in New York City, and then had his titles stripped — all while being a member of a nation whose people would not be granted U.S. citizenship for another twelve years.