A son of sports great Jim Thorpe sued the Pennsylvania town that bears his father’s name Thursday, demanding that it return his remains to Oklahoma under a federal law designed to give Native American artifacts back to their tribal homelands.

Jack Thorpe, 72, of Shawnee, Okla., sued in federal court in Scranton, saying he had waited until the last of his half-sisters died to avoid a family conflict over the lawsuit.

His father, a native Oklahoman born into the tribe, overcame humble roots to win the decathlon and pentathlon in the 1912 Olympics. Jim Thorpe later earned enviable sums playing professional football and baseball, and somewhat less playing the Indian in B-list Hollywood movies, then struggled financially before his March 1953 death in California at age 64.

In a bizarre deal to draw tourists, the merging towns of Mauch Chunk and East Mauch Chunk, Pa., brokered a deal with Thorpe’s ambitious third wife that renamed the community

in 1954 and brought his remains to a corner of the Pocono Mountains that he likely never saw.

Thorpe’s three daughters long endorsed the arrangement, especially daughter Grace, a Native American activist who sometimes visited for the town’s annual Jim Thorpe celebration. But Jack and his three brothers opposed it, believing their father belongs in sacred tribal burial land in Shawnee.

Tucked in a steep valley on the western edge of the Poconos, the town of Jim Thorpe has been a popular tourist draw for decades, offering historic architecture, quaint shops, train excursions and outdoor recreation from whitewater rafting to guided fall foliage tours.

Defendant John McGuire, the council’s vice president, favors keeping Thorpe’s remains at the roadside memorial overlooking the Lehigh River. He believes a majority of the town’s residents do, too.

Even if the lawsuit is successful, McGuire considers it unlikely that the town would change its name again.

Thorpe became well-known during the 1912 Olympics in Sweden, when his track titles led King Gustav V to declare,

"Sir, you are the greatest athlete in the world."

The 24-year-old Thorpe replied:

"Thanks, King."

The medals were rescinded a year later over concerns Thorpe had played some semi-professional baseball. But the family had them restored posthumously in 1982.

Jack Thorpe hopes town leaders will now put the debate over his body to rest without a trial.