Grace Thorpe: A Life of Service
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- Uploaded
- 2025-05-27T03:38:54.000Z
- Creator
- National Museum of the American Indian
- Views
- 173
- Video Title
- Grace Thorpe: A Life of Service
- Description
- World War II veteran, Native rights activist, and daughter of famed athlete Jim Thorpe, Grace Thorpe (Sac and Fox, 1921–2008) served in the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) from 1943 to 1945. Following her military service, Grace devoted herself to raising her family and started working in public relations. In the late 1960s, Grace shifted her focus to Native American issues, working as a conference coordinator for the National Congress of American Indians and leading public relations for Indians of All Tribes during the occupation of Alcatraz. Grace remained politically active throughout the 1970s and ’80s, in addition to fighting for the restoration of her father’s Olympic titles. In later years, Grace served the Sac and Fox Nation as a tribal judge and health commissioner. She also became an environmental activist and opposed storing nuclear waste on tribal lands. Throughout her long life of service, Thorpe meticulously gathered a personal archive of interviews, articles and photographs now housed at the National Museum of the American Indian. Hear from Rachel Menyuk, processing archivist, to learn how archival collections like Thorpe’s can reveal the complex stories that make up a person’s life. Then, visit the exhibition "InSight: Photos and Stories from the Archives" now open on Level 2 to learn more about the museum’s archival holdings. For live captioning, please open the following page in a new window: https://www.streamtext.net/player?event=Service_Sacrifice
- Video Duration
- 36 min 16 sec
- YouTube Keywords
- Native American Indian Museum Smithsonian "Indigenous Peoples" "Smithsonian Institution" "Smithsonian NMAI" "National Museum of the American Indian"
- YouTube Category
- Education
- Topic
- Native Americans;American Indians
- See more by
- SmithsonianNMAI
- Data Source
- National Museum of the American Indian
- YouTube Channel
- SmithsonianNMAI
- Type
- Interviews
- YouTube Videos
- Metadata Usage
- Usage conditions apply
- Record ID
- yt_GSMX1wFMEZk