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PAGE 60     The Phoenix Gazette

Activist Grace Thorpe Stumps For Indians

By SARAH AUFFRET

Grace Thorpe wears boots.

Not high fashion, black patent knee-high jobbers.  She wears heavy crepe soled, brown leather logger boots that lace above the ankle.

"I discovered them when I was living on Alcatraz," she explained in her booming, jovial manner. "Now I spend a lot of time in airports, walking three miles from ticket desk to baggage counter to the gate. These boots have liberated me. I just can't give 'em up."

Grace is in Phoenix to stump for a brand new university for Indians and Chicanos, just organized at Davis, Calif. Ready for a mouthful? It's the Deganawidah-Quetzalcoatl University.

True to the purpose for which it has been designated, the school was named for two men - an Iroquois prophet and a Mexican patron of the arts.

It marks the beginning of a movement. Site of the school is surplus property that is being returned to the Indian people by the Federal government. The 10 - building campus is the former location of an Army communications center. 

"It's about time that this happened," according to Grace, daughter of famed Indian athlete Jim Thorpe and member of the Sauk and Fox tribe from Oklahoma. "We're at the bottom of the ladder as far as education is concerned. When we gave up our lands in the first place, it was part of the deal that our children would be educated. We can't do any worse than we've fared so far."

The land was turned over recently after a year - long battle by a group of Indian and Chicano educators from California and other interested people like Grace. The transfer was initiated peacefully by submitting an application to the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.

When it was announced in October that the site was being given to the University of California for purposes of research on monkeys, hundreds of students occupied the site in protest and began a letter - writing campaign. The University of California withdrew their application.

Mrs. Thorpe plunged into the Indian Activist movement three years ago after working in advertising and public relations for 12 years in New York.

"I just woke up one morning and felt like a stranger in my own home," she chuckled. "I said: What am I doing here? I should be working for my people."

She sold her home, quit her job, and took a position with the National Congress of American Indians for a year.

When she read about the successful Indian invasion of Alcatraz over a year ago, she was elated. Within a week she was on the Island, handling all public relations work for the group of renegades. She stayed four months.

Then she joined the invasion of Ft. Lawton, Wash. She was arrested and jailed, and some of the Indian men were beaten. But the next week she appeared at the Surplus Land Hearings in Washington, D.C.

A large woman with a commanding presence, Grace Thorpe doesn't give up easily. She's been arrested twice since and is currently out on bail.

Founder of the recently formed National Indian Women's Action Corps, Grace jumped at the chance to be coordinator for the new university. She thinks it is the first coalition between Indians and Chicanos.

Enrollment, open to students of all races, is already beginning. 

"There are facilities for about 200 students. The buildings are in good shape and will be ready soon. They just need a good scrubbing."

Formal trainer of the surplus site from federal officials, scheduled for April 2, will be celebrated by a Mexican fiesta and an Indian pow wow.

The Ford Foundation has committed $100,000 to pay for faculty salaries at the liberal arts school. Negotiations are underway with the Office of Economic Opportunity to obtain an additional $200,000. Grace is traveling to drum up private donations.

An articulate and lively spokesman for her people, Grace Thorpe will continue to urge the transfer of other surplus lands to the Indians after the new school is underway.

She doesn't let any grass grow under her boots.

[[image]]
[[caption]] A direct descendant of famed chieftain Blackhawk of Sauk and Fox tribe, Grace Thorpe admires gift of Shoshone beaded purse presented to her by a friend. [[/caption]]

MARCH 26, 1971