amazing performances in the decathlon and the
pentathlon.
The AAU makes the decision six days after
the Worcester Telegram in Worcester, Massachusetts,
reports that Thorpe played professional baseball dur-
ing the summer of 1910. The committee disregards
a letter from Thorpe in which he pleas for leniency,
explaining that he played not for the money but for
the love of the game. The claim is particularly per-
suasive after it is reported that he received only $25
to $30 a week. Nationally and internationally, the
public largely sides with Thorpe. The AAU is con-
demned as an elitist institution, and many contend
that its decision to punish Thorpe smacks of racism.
(See also entry for JANUARY 18, 1983.)
February 22
Work begins on Indian monument in New
York City.
In a ceremony held on George Washington’s birth-
day and attended by 32 Indian leaders, President
William Howard Taft breaks ground at the future
site of a bronze statue of a young Indian extending
his hand in a gesture of peace. The monument, pro-
jected to be 15 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty,
is the brainchild of department store owner Rod-
man Wanamaker (see entry for 1909). In a speech,
Taft predicts that the statue will tell the “story of the
march of empire and the progress of Christian civi-
lization to the uttermost limits.” Construction on
Wanamaker’s tribute to a “departed race” will be de-
layed because of a shortage of bronze during World
War I, then abandoned due to a lack of funding and
public interest.
1914Louis Sockalexis is honored by Cleveland
baseball fans.
When fans are asked to rename the Cleveland
Spiders, they vote for “Indians.” The new name
is meant to honor Louis Sockalexis, who had be-
come the first Indian to play major league baseball
when he joined the Cleveland team (see entry for
APRIL 22, 1897). Sockalexis died in obscurity on
December 24, 1913.The United States takes over the Northern
Cheyenne’s cattle.
Charging that the Northern Cheyenne’s ranch-
ing operations are grossly mismanaged, the U.S.
government takes control over the tribe’s substan-
tial herds, which grew from one to 12,000 head
between 1903 and 1912. The action is encour-
aged by the Northern Cheyenne’s non-Indian
competitors, who are angry at being undersold in
cattle markets by the tribe’s ranchers. Under the
government’s watch, management errors—such
as leaving cattle outside to freeze to death in the
winter—will drastically reduce the herds. Within a
decade, the number of cattle owned by tribe mem-
bers will plummet to about 3,000. (See also entry
for 1919.)Actor Chauncey Yellow Robe attacks
depictions of Indians on film.
Before a meeting of the Society of American Indi-
ans (SAI) (see entry for OCTOBER 12, 1911), the
leading organization of Native American activists,
Lakota Sioux actor Chauncey Yellow Robe speaks
out against The Indian Wars Refought (1914), a
motion picture produced by the film company of
William “Buffalo Bill” Cody. Cody entered the film
business after the public lost interest in his famous
Wild West show, for which he hired Indian and
non-Indian actors to re-create Plains Wars battles
for a largely white audience (see entry for MAY 18,
1883).
As Yellow Robe tells the members of the
SAI, he is appalled that The Indian Wars Refought
presents the Wounded Knee Massacre—during
which some 300 Lakota women, men, and chil-
dren were slaughtered by the U.S. Army (see entry
for DECEMBER 29, 1890)—as though it were a
battle pitting noble American soldiers against
bloodthirsty Lakota warriors. Yellow Robe also
notes with dismay that the film, whose “technical
advisor” is the notorious Indian fighter General