Thorpe lies under a monument on a hill outside of this town that he probably never even visited while he was alive.

That upsets Jack Thorpe, 64, the youngest of Thorpe's five living children, who is seeking to have his father given a proper Indian burial in his native Oklahoma. He has asked for the village to give up the body and have it returned.

"We as a family had offered any way we can to work with the city,'' Thorpe said. "It's a great honor to have a town named after your father. We offered to work with them to help them succeed, but they don't need the bones of my father to succeed.''

Jack Thorpe's resentment has been brewing for nearly 50 years.

Following Thorpe's death in 1953, his family made plans to bury him in Oklahoma. But his third wife, Patricia, said she didn't have enough money to give Thorpe the burial she thought he deserved. She then took Thorpe's body from Oklahoma after Gov. William H. Murray refused to sign a spending bill authorizing a monument in Thorpe's honor.

Patricia Thorpe announced that she was looking for a place that would honor her husband and ended up here, 70 miles north of Philadelphia in a community nestled in a narrow valley in the Poconos, where civic leaders pledged to give him a monument. They also pledged to merge the boroughs of Mauch Chunk and East Mauch Chunk and incorporate together as Jim Thorpe, which happened in 1954.

A local newspaper publisher pushed the issue, saying that Thorpe's tomb could help the town become a tourist attraction. Locals even hoped Thorpe's presence would attract the Pro Football Hall of Fame, which ended up being built in Ohio.

Money was raised. The monument was built. And the ground where Thorpe is buried was dedicated in 1957.

"We don't hold anything against Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania. They acted in good faith,'' Jack Thorpe said. "They just don't understand Indian culture, Native American culture and the ways we honor those who have gone on and how we put people to rest.''

As far as many in Jim Thorpe are concerned, a deal's a deal.

"He was married Catholic,'' Jim Thorpe mayor Ron Confer said. "He did get a proper burial, maybe just not the way they would have liked it.''

Confer said he would never unilaterally agree to give up the body.

"That's really up to the voters. I'd say today we're content the way things are,'' Confer said.

Jack Thorpe said he has received no response from the village since asking for his father's body in January.

"We have an attorney working with the family and were waiting for his word,'' Thorpe said. "If there's no other way, we'll go to court.''

Jack Thorpe said the family has "always felt that our father was being used for tourism.''

That puts Robert Uguccioni in the middle.

''(Jim Thorpe's) one of the best tourist destinations in the Poconos, but I'm not sure it's because of Jim Thorpe,'' said Uguccioni, executive director of the Pocono Mountains Vacation Bureau.

"It's not Jim Thorpe the man, it's Jim Thorpe the town _ the Victorian mansions, the shops, the buildings,'' Uguccioni said. "I don't think people go there because it's where Jim Thorpe is buried.''

Indeed, buses line up at Jim Thorpe's old train station and tourists visit the antique shops of its picturesque downtown. From the license plates of the cars parked on Main Street, it's easy to discern the visitors' homes _ New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Ontario.

Several miles away, across the Lehigh River, up a hill on state Route 903 is Thorpe's resting place.

Cars, nearly all of them locals, zip past a roadside memorial park where he is buried. When there's a break in the traffic, it's a fittingly peaceful place _ with well-manicured grass, a large granite monument, a sculpture and several plaques putting Thorpe's achievements into context.

Thorpe was born in 1887 in Oklahoma, a member of the Sac and Fox Nation. He lived for a time in Pennsylvania as a student at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School.

At the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, Thorpe became the only Olympian ever to win the decathlon and pentathlon. Thorpe, who finished third in the Associated Press' athlete of the century poll, was also a three-time All-American in football.

Thorpe played for the New York Giants beginning in 1913 and, after seven years in baseball, moved to football. He was the franchise player when a team was brought to Canton, Ohio, and went on to play for several teams in what would become the National Football League. The league's Most Valuable Player award is still named after him.

Soil from Oklahoma, Carlisle, the Polo Grounds and Olympic Stadium in Sweden is sprinkled on the ground on the memorial. The monument is inscribed with an utterance widely attributed to King Gustav V of Sweden: "Sir, you are the greatest athlete in the world.''

Very few tourists, however, seem to visit the park.

"I don't think people would stop going there'' if the body were removed, Uguccioni said.

"But the town does take good care of his remains,'' Uguccioni said. "It's not where he came from, but it's very dignified. It's not honky tonk.''

Jack Thorpe says that doesn't matter. He said many family members are still bitter that Patricia Thorpe was accompanied by police when she took his father's body away during an Indian memorial service.

"It's always been a sore spot with us family members,'' he said. "Everybody was highly upset. ... You just don't do those things.''