Jim Thorpe James Francis " Jim " Thorpe ( Sac and Fox ( Sauk ) : " Wa - Tho - Huk " , translated as " Bright Path " ; May 28 , 1888March 28 , 1953 ) was an American athlete of both Native American and European ancestry . Considered one of the most versatile athletes of modern sports , he won Olympic gold medals for the 1912 pentathlon and decathlon , played American football ( collegiate and professional ) , and also played professional baseball and basketball . He lost his Olympic titles after it was found he was paid for playing two seasons of semi - professional baseball before competing in the Olympics , thus violating the amateurism rules that were then in place . In 1983 , 30 years after his death , the International Olympic Committee ( IOC ) restored his Olympic medals . Thorpe grew up in the Sac and Fox Nation in Oklahoma . He played as part of several All - American Indian teams throughout his career , and " barnstormed " as a professional basketball player with a team composed entirely of American Indians . From 1920 to 1921 , Thorpe was nominally the first president of the American Professional Football Association ( APFA ) , which would become the National Football League ( NFL ) in 1922 . He played professional sports until age 41 , the end of his sports career coinciding with the start of the Great Depression . Thorpe struggled to earn a living after that , working several odd jobs . Thorpe suffered from alcoholism , and lived his last years in failing health and poverty . In a poll of sports fans conducted by ABC Sports , Thorpe was voted the Greatest Athlete of the Twentieth Century out of 15 other athletes including Muhammad Ali , Babe Ruth , Jesse Owens , Wayne Gretzky , Jack Nicklaus , and Michael Jordan . Early life . Information about Thorpe ' s birth , name and ethnic background varies widely . He was baptized " Jacobus Franciscus Thorpe " in the Catholic Church . Thorpe was born in Indian Territory , but no birth certificate has been found . He was generally considered to have been born on May 28 , 1888 , near the town of Prague , Oklahoma . Thorpe himself said in an article in " The Shawnee News - Star " in 1949 that he was born May 28 , 1888 , on his mother ' s allotment " near and south of Bellemont – Pottawatomie County – along the banks of the North Fork River . . . hope this will clear up the inquiries as to my birthplace . " Bellemont was a small community , now disappeared , on the line between Pottawatomie and Lincoln Counties . While the town of Prague , Lincoln County , now claims to be the birthplace of Thorpe , there is no evidence that Thorpe himself called Prague his hometown . All his personal references were either Shawnee ( the county seat of Pottawatomie County and about ten miles ( 16 km ) southwest of his birthplace ) or " Pott County " . The Sak And Fox agency is in Stroud , Lincoln County , which could cause some of the confusion . Thorpe ' s parents were both of mixed - race ancestry . His father , Hiram Thorpe , had an Irish father and a Sac and Fox Indian mother . His mother , Charlotte Vieux , had a French father and a Potawatomi mother , a descendant of Chief Louis Vieux . He was raised as a Sac and Fox , and his native name , " Wa - Tho - Huk " , translated as " path lit by great flash of lightning " or , more simply , " Bright Path " . As was the custom for Sac and Fox , he was named for something occurring around the time of his birth , in this case the light brightening the path to the cabin where he was born . Thorpe ' s parents were both Roman Catholic , a faith which Thorpe observed throughout his adult life . Thorpe attended the Sac and Fox Indian Agency school in Stroud , Oklahoma , with his twin brother , Charlie . Charlie helped him through school until he succumbed to a bout of pneumonia when they were nine years old . He ran away from school several times . His father then sent him to the Haskell Institute , an " Indian " boarding school in Lawrence , Kansas , so that he would not run away again . When his mother died of childbirth complications two years later , he became depressed . After several arguments with his father , he left home to work on a horse ranch . In 1904 the sixteen - year - old Thorpe returned to his father and decided to attend Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle , Pennsylvania . There his athletic ability was recognized and he was coached by Glenn Scobey " Pop " Warner , one of the most influential coaches of early American football history . Later that year he became orphaned after Hiram Thorpe died from gangrene poisoning after being wounded in a hunting accident , and Jim again dropped out of school . He resumed farm work for a few years and then returned to Carlisle Indian Industrial School . Amateur career . College career . Thorpe began his athletic career at Carlisle in 1907 when he walked past the track and beat all the school ' s high jump ers with an impromptu 5 - ft 9 - in jump still in street clothes . His earliest recorded track and field results come from 1907 . He also competed in football , baseball , lacrosse and even ballroom dancing , winning the 1912 intercollegiate ballroom dancing championship . Pop Warner was hesitant to allow Thorpe , his best track and field athlete , to compete in a physical game such as football . Thorpe , however , convinced Warner to let him try some rushing plays in practice against the school team ' s defense ; Warner assumed he would be tackled easily and give up the idea . Thorpe " ran around past and through them not once , but twice " . He then walked over to Warner and said " Nobody is going to tackle Jim , " while flipping him the ball . Thorpe gained nationwide attention for the first time in 1911 . As a running back , defensive back , placekicker and punter , Thorpe scored all his team ' s points — four field goals and a touchdown — in an 18 – 15 upset of Harvard , a top ranked team in those early days of the National Collegiate Athletic Association . His team finished the season 11 – 1 . In 1912 Carlisle won the national collegiate championship largely as a result of his efforts – he scored 25 touchdown s and 198 points during the season . Carlisle ' s 1912 record included a 27 – 6 victory over Army . In that game , Thorpe ' s 92 - yard touchdown was nullified by a teammate ' s penalty , but on the next play Thorpe rushed for a 97 - yard touchdown . Future President Dwight Eisenhower , who played against him that season , recalled of Thorpe in a 1961 speech : " Here and there , there are some people who are supremely endowed . My memory goes back to Jim Thorpe . He never practiced in his life , and he could do anything better than any other football player I ever saw . " He was awarded All - America n honors in both 1911 and 1912 . Football was - and would remain - Thorpe ' s favorite sport . He competed only sporadically in track and field , even though this turned out to be the sport in which he gained his greatest fame . In the spring of 1912 , he started training for the Olympics . He had confined his efforts to jumps , hurdles and shot - puts , but now added pole vaulting , javelin , discus , hammer and 56 lb weight . In the Olympic trials held at Celtic Park in New York , his all - round ability stood out in all these events and so he riveted a claim to a place on the team that went to Sweden . Olympic career . For the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm , Sweden , two new multi - event disciplines were included , the pentathlon and the decathlon . A pentathlon , based on the ancient Greek event , had been introduced at the 1906 Summer Olympics . The 1912 version consisted of the long jump , javelin throw , 200 - meter dash , discus throw and 1500 - meter run . The decathlon was a relatively new event in modern athletics , although it had been part of American track meets since the 1880s and a version had been featured on the program of the 1904 St . Louis Olympics . The events of the new decathlon differed slightly from the American version . Both seemed appropriate for Thorpe , who was so versatile that he served as Carlisle ' s one - man team in several track meets . He could run the 100 - yard dash in 10 seconds flat , the 220 in 21 . 8 seconds , the 440 in 51 . 8 seconds , the 880 in 1 : 57 , the mile in 4 : 35 , the 120 - yard high hurdles in 15 seconds , and the 220 - yard low hurdles in 24 seconds . He could long jump 23 ft 6 in and high - jump 6 ft 5 in . He could pole vault 11 feet , put the shot 47 ft 9 in , throw the javelin 163 feet , and throw the discus 136 feet . Thorpe entered the U . S . Olympic trials for both the pentathlon and the decathlon . He won the awards easily , winning three events , and was named to the pentathlon team , which also included future International Olympic Committee president Avery Brundage . There were only a few candidates for the decathlon team , however , and the trials were cancelled . His schedule in the Olympics was busy . Along with the decathlon and pentathlon , he competed in the long jump and high jump . The first competition was the pentathlon . He won four of the five events and placed third in the javelin , an event he had not competed in before 1912 . Although the pentathlon was primarily decided on place points , points were also earned for the marks achieved in the individual events . He won the gold medal . That same day , he qualified for the high jump final in which he placed fourth , and also took seventh place in the long jump . Even more remarkably , because someone had stolen his shoes just before he was due to compete , he found some discarded ones in a rubbish bin and won his medals wearing them . He is shown in the 1912 photo wearing two different shoes and extra socks because one shoe was too big . Thorpe ' s final event was the decathlon , his first — and as it turned out , his only — Olympic decathlon . Strong competition from local favorite Hugo Wieslander was expected . Thorpe , however , easily defeated Wieslander by more than 700 points . He placed in the top four in all ten events , and his Olympic record of 8 , 413 points would stand for nearly two decades . Overall , Thorpe won eight of the 15 individual events comprising the pentathlon and decathlon . As was the custom of the day , the medals were presented to the athletes during the closing ceremonies of the games . Along with the two gold medals , Thorpe also received two challenge prizes , which were donated by King Gustav V of Sweden for the decathlon and Czar Nicholas II of Russia for the pentathlon . Several sources recount that , when awarding Thorpe his prize , King Gustav said , " You , sir , are the greatest athlete in the world " , to which Thorpe replied , " Thanks , King " . Contemporary sources from 1912 are lacking , suggesting that the story was apocryphal , however . The anecdote appeared in newspapers as early as 1948 , 36 years after his appearance in the Olympics , and in books as early as 1952 . Thorpe ' s successes had not gone unnoticed at home , and he was honored with a ticker - tape parade on Broadway . He remembered later , " I heard people yelling my name , and I couldn ' t realize how one fellow could have so many friends . " Apart from his track and field appearances , he also played in one of two exhibition baseball games at the 1912 Olympics , which featured two teams composed of U . S . track and field athletes . It was not Thorpe ' s first try at baseball , as the public would soon learn . All - Around Champion . After his victories at the Olympic Games in Sweden , on September 2 , 1912 , he returned to Celtic Park , the home of the Irish American Athletic Club , in Queens , New York ( where he had qualified four months earlier for the Olympic Games ) , to compete in the Amateur Athletic Union ' s All - Around Championship . Competing against Bruno Brodd of the Irish American Athletic Club and J . Bredemus of Princeton University , he won seven of the ten events contested and came in second in the remaining three . With a total point score of 7 , 476 points , Thorpe broke the previous record of 7 , 385 points set in 1909 , ( also set at Celtic Park ) , by Martin Sheridan , the champion athlete of the Irish American Athletic Club . Sheridan , a five - time Olympic gold medalist , was present to watch his record broken , approached Thorpe after the event and shook his hand saying , " Jim , my boy , you ' re a great man . I never expect to look upon a finer athlete . " He told a reporter from " The New York World " , " Thorpe is the greatest athlete that ever lived . He has me beaten fifty ways . Even when I was in my prime , I could not do what he did today . " Controversy . In 1912 , strict rules regarding amateurism were in effect for athletes participating in the Olympics . Athletes who received money prizes for competitions , were sports teachers or had competed previously against professionals , were not considered amateurs and were barred from competition . In late January 1913 , the " Worcester Telegram " published a story announcing that Thorpe had played professional baseball , and other U . S . newspapers followed up the story . Thorpe had indeed played professional baseball in the Eastern Carolina League for Rocky Mount , North Carolina , in 1909 and 1910 , receiving meager pay ; reportedly as little as US $ 2 ( $ today ) per game and as much as US $ 35 ( $ today ) per week . College players , in fact , regularly spent summers playing professionally but most used aliases , unlike Thorpe . Although the public didn ' t seem to care much about Thorpe ' s past , the Amateur Athletic Union ( AAU ) , and especially its secretary James Edward Sullivan , took the case very seriously . Thorpe wrote a letter to Sullivan , in which he admitted playing professional baseball : His letter didn ' t help . The AAU decided to withdraw Thorpe ' s amateur status retroactively and asked the International Olympic Commission ( IOC ) to do the same . Later that year , the IOC unanimously decided to strip Thorpe of his Olympic titles , medals and awards and declare him a professional . Although Thorpe had played for money , the AAU and IOC did not follow the rules for disqualification . The rulebook for the 1912 Olympics stated that protests had to be made " within " 30 days from the closing ceremonies of the games . The first newspaper reports did not appear until January 1913 , about six months after the Stockholm Games had concluded . There is also some evidence that Thorpe ' s amateur status had been questioned long before the Olympics , but the AAU had ignored the issue until being confronted with it in 1913 . The only positive element of this affair for Thorpe was that , as soon as the news was reported that he had been declared a professional , he received offers from professional sports clubs . Professional career . Baseball free agent . Because the minor league team that last held Jim Thorpe ' s contract had disbanded in 1910 , he found himself in the rare position of being a sought after free agent at the major league level during the era of the reserve clause , and thus had a choice of baseball teams for which to play . In January 1913 , he turned down a starting position with the American League cellar - dwelling St . Louis Browns , choosing instead to join the 1912 National League champion New York Giants , who with Thorpe playing in 19 of their 151 games , would repeat as the 1913 National League champions . Immediately following the Giants ' October loss in the 1913 World Series , Thorpe and the Giants joined the Chicago White Sox for a world tour . Barnstorming across the United States and then around the world , Thorpe was the celebrity of the tour . Thorpe ' s presence increased the publicity , attendance and gate receipts for the tour . He met with Pope Pius X and Abbas II Hilmi Bey ( the last Khedive of Egypt ) , and played before 20 , 000 people in London including King George V . While in Rome , he was filmed wrestling with another baseball player on the floor of the Colosseum ( although no known copy of that film has survived ) . Baseball , football , and basketball . Thorpe signed with the New York Giants baseball club in 1913 and played sporadically with them as an outfielder for three seasons . After playing in the minor leagues with the Milwaukee Brewers in 1916 , he returned to the Giants in 1917 but was sold to the Cincinnati Reds early in the season . In the " double no - hitter " between Fred Toney of the Reds and Hippo Vaughn of the Chicago Cubs , Thorpe drove in the winning run in the 10th inning . Late in the season , he was sold back to the Giants . Again , he played sporadically for them in 1918 before being traded to the Boston Braves on May 21 , 1919 , for Pat Ragan . In his career , he amassed 91 runs scored , 82 runs batted in and a . 252 batting average over 289 games . He continued to play minor league baseball until 1922 . But Thorpe had not abandoned football either . He first played professional football in 1913 as a member of the Indiana - based Pine Village Pros , a team that had a several - season winning streak against local teams during the 1910s . He then signed with the Canton Bulldogs in 1915 . They paid him $ 250 ( $ today ) a game , a tremendous wage at the time . Before signing him Canton was averaging 1 , 200 fans a game , but 8 , 000 showed up for his debut against the Massillon Tigers . The team won titles in 1916 , 1917 , and 1919 . He reportedly ended the 1919 championship game by kicking a wind - assisted 95 - yard punt from his team ' s own 5 - yard line , effectively putting the game out of reach . In 1920 , the Bulldogs were one of 14 teams to form the American Professional Football Association ( APFA ) , which would become the National Football League ( NFL ) two years later . Thorpe was nominally the APFA ' s first president , but spent most of the year playing for Canton and a year later was replaced as president by Joseph Carr . He continued to play for Canton , coaching the team as well . Between 1921 and 1923 , he helped organize and played for the Oorang Indians ( LaRue , Ohio ) , an all - Native American team . Although the team ' s record was 3 – 6 in 1922 , and 1 – 10 in 1923 , he played well and was selected for the " Green Bay Press - Gazette ' s " first All - NFL team in 1923 , which would later be formally recognized by the NFL as the league ' s official All - NFL team in 1931 ) . Thorpe never played for an NFL championship team . He retired from professional football at age 41 , having played 52 NFL games for six teams from 1920 to 1928 . Until 2005 , most of Thorpe ' s biographers were unaware of his basketball career until a ticket discovered in an old book that year documented his career in basketball . By 1926 , he was the main feature of the " World Famous Indians " of LaRue which sponsored traveling football , baseball and basketball teams . " Jim Thorpe and His World - Famous Indians " barnstormed for at least two years ( 1927 – 28 ) in parts of New York and Pennsylvania as well as Marion , Ohio . Although pictures of Thorpe in his WFI basketball uniform were printed on postcards and published in newspapers , this period of his life was not well documented . Marriage and family . Thorpe married three times and had eight children ( seven of whom survived to adulthood ) . In 1913 Thorpe married Iva Miller , whom he had met at Carlisle . They had four children : Jim Jr . ( who died at age 2 ) , Gale , Charlotte and Grace . Miller filed for divorce from Thorpe in 1925 , claiming desertion . In 1926 Thorpe married Freeda V . Kirkpatrick ( September 19 , 1905 – March 2 , 2007 ) . She was working for the manager of the baseball team for which he was playing at the time . They had four sons : Carl , a lieutenant colonel in the U . S . Army , William , Richard and John ( " Jack " ) . Kirkpatrick divorced Thorpe in 1941 after 15 years of marriage . Lastly , Thorpe married Patricia Askew on June 2 , 1945 ; she was with him when he died . Later life . After his athletic career , Thorpe struggled to provide for his family . He found it difficult to work a non - sports - related job and never held a job for an extended period of time . During the Great Depression in particular , he had various jobs , among others as an extra for several movies , usually playing an American Indian chief in Westerns . He also worked as a construction worker , a doorman ( bouncer ) , a security guard and a ditchdigger , and briefly joined the United States Merchant Marine in 1945 . Thorpe was a chronic alcoholic during his later life . He ran out of money sometime in the early 1950s . When hospitalized for lip cancer in 1950 , he was admitted as a charity case . At a press conference announcing the procedure , his wife , Patricia , wept and pleaded for help , saying , " [ W ] e ' re broke . . . Jim has nothing but his name and his memories . He has spent money on his own people and has given it away . He has often been exploited . " Death . In early 1953 , Thorpe went into heart failure for the third time while dining with Patricia in their home in Lomita , California . He was briefly revived by artificial respiration and spoke to those around him , but lost consciousness shortly afterward and died on March 28 at the age of 64 . Racism . Thorpe , whose parents were both half Caucasian , was raised as an American Indian . His accomplishments occurred during a period of heavy racial inequality in the United States . It has often been suggested that his medals were stripped because of his ethnicity . While it is difficult to prove this , the public comment at the time largely reflected this view . At the time Thorpe won his gold medals , not all Native Americans were recognized as U . S . citizens . ( The U . S . government had wanted them to make concessions to adopt European - American ways to receive such recognition . ) Citizenship was not granted to all American Indians until 1924 . While Thorpe attended Carlisle , students ' ethnicity was used for marketing purposes . The football team was called the Indians . A photograph of Thorpe and the 1911 football team emphasized racial differences among the competing athletes ; the inscription on the most important game ball of that season reads , " 1911 , Indians 18 , Harvard 15 . " Additionally , the school and journalists often categorized sporting competitions as conflicts of Indians against whites ; newspaper headings such as " Indians Scalp Army 27 – 6 " or " Jim Thorpe on Rampage " made stereotypical journalistic play of the Indian background of Carlisle ' s football team . The first notice of Thorpe in the " New York Times " was headlined " Indian Thorpe in Olympiad ; Redskin from Carlisle Will Strive for Place on American Team . " His accomplishments were described in a similar racial context by other newspapers and sportswriters throughout his life . Legacy . Olympic awards reinstated . Over the years , supporters of Thorpe attempted to have his Olympic titles reinstated . US Olympic officials , including former teammate and later president of the IOC Avery Brundage , rebuffed several attempts , with Brundage once saying , " Ignorance is no excuse . " Most persistent were the author Robert Wheeler and his wife , Florence Ridlon . They succeeded in having the AAU and United States Olympic Committee overturn its decision and restore Thorpe ' s amateur status before 1913 . In 1982 , Wheeler and Ridlon established the Jim Thorpe Foundation and gained support from the U . S . Congress . Armed with this support and evidence from 1912 proving that Thorpe ' s disqualification had occurred after the 30 - day time period allowed by Olympics rules , they succeeded in making the case to the IOC . In October 1982 , the IOC Executive Committee approved Thorpe ' s reinstatement . In an unusual ruling , they declared that Thorpe was co - champion with Bie and Wieslander , although both of these athletes had always said they considered Thorpe to be the only champion . In a ceremony on January 18 , 1983 , the IOC presented two of Thorpe ' s children , Gale and Bill , with commemorative medals . Thorpe ' s original medals had been held in museums , but they had been stolen and have never been recovered . Honors . Thorpe ' s monument , featuring the quote from Gustav V ( " You , sir , are the greatest athlete in the world . " ) , still stands near the town named for him , Jim Thorpe , Pennsylvania . The grave rests on mounds of soil from Thorpe ' s native Oklahoma and from the stadium in which he won his Olympic medals . Thorpe ' s achievements received great acclaim from sports journalists , both during his lifetime and since his death . In 1950 an Associated Press poll of almost 400 sportswriters and broadcasters voted Thorpe the " greatest athlete " of the first half of the 20th century . That same year , the Associated Press named Thorpe the " greatest American football player " of the first half of the century . In 1999 , the Associated Press placed him third on its list of the top athletes of the century , following Babe Ruth and Michael Jordan . ESPN ranked Thorpe seventh on their list of best North American athletes of the century . Thorpe was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1963 , one of seventeen players in the charter class . Thorpe is memorialized in the Pro Football Hall of Fame rotunda with a larger - than - life statue . He was also inducted into halls of fame for college football , American Olympic teams , and the national track and field competition . President Richard Nixon , as authorized by U . S . Senate Joint Resolution 73 , proclaimed Monday , April 16 , 1973 , as " Jim Thorpe Day " to promote the nationwide recognition of Thorpe . In 1986 , the Jim Thorpe Association established an award with Thorpe ' s name . The Jim Thorpe Award is given annually to the best defensive back in college football . The annual Thorpe Cup athletics meeting is named in his honor . The United States Postal Service issued a 32¢ stamp on 3 February 1998 as part of the Celebrate the Century stamp sheet series . Jim Thorpe , Pennsylvania . Thorpe ' s body was lying in state at Fairview Cemetery in Shawnee , Oklahoma , after citizens had paid to have it moved there by train from California . The people were in a fund raising effort to erect a permanent monument and burial place for Thorpe at the town ' s Athletic Park . Local officials had asked the state legislature for funding but were turned down so they doubled their efforts to raise the money on their own . Meanwhile , Thorpe ' s third wife , unbeknownst to the rest of his family , " stole " Thorpe ' s body and had it shipped to Pennsylvania when she heard that the small Pennsylvania towns of Mauch Chunk and East Mauch Chunk were seeking to attract business . She made a deal with officials which , according to Thorpe ' s son Jack , was done by Patricia for monetary considerations . The towns bought Thorpe ' s remains , erected a monument to him , merged , and renamed the newly united town in his honor Jim Thorpe , Pennsylvania even though Thorpe had never been there . The monument site contains his tomb , two statues of him in athletic poses , and historical markers describing his life story . The town of Shawnee , disappointed that they were unable to honor the man who considered Shawnee his hometown , named their football field in his honor . In June 2010 , Jack Thorpe filed a federal lawsuit against the borough of Jim Thorpe , seeking to have his father ' s remains returned to his homeland and re - interred near other family members in Oklahoma . Citing the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act , Jack was arguing to bring his father ' s remains to the reservation in Oklahoma , where they would be buried near those of his father , sisters and brother , a mile from the place he was born . He claimed that the agreement between his stepmother and Jim Thorpe , Pa . , borough officials was made against the wishes of other family members who want him buried in Native American land . Jack Thorpe died at 73 on February 22 , 2011 . In April 2013 , U . S . District Judge Richard Caputo ruled that Jim Thorpe borough in northeastern Pennsylvania amounts to a museum under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act . A lawyer for Bill and Richard Thorpe says the men will pursue the legal process to have their father returned to Sac and Fox land in central Oklahoma . In film . In the 1930s , Thorpe appeared in several short films and features . Usually , his roles were cameo appearances as an Indian , although in the 1932 comedy , " Always Kickin " , Thorpe was prominently cast in a speaking part as himself , a kicking coach teaching young football players to drop - kick . In 1931 , during the Great Depression , he sold the film rights to his life story to MGM for $ 1 , 500 ( $ today ) . The movie included archival footage of the 1912 and 1932 Olympics , as well as a banquet in which Thorpe was honored . Thorpe was seen in some long shots in the film ; and one scene showed him as a coaching assistant . It was also distributed in the United Kingdom , where it was called " Man of Bronze " . Thorpe was memorialized in the Warner Bros . film " Jim Thorpe – All - American " ( 1951 ) starring Burt Lancaster , with Billy Gray performing as Thorpe as a child . The film was directed by Michael Curtiz . Although there were rumors that Thorpe received no money , he was paid $ 15 , 000 by Warner Bros . plus a $ 2 , 500 donation toward an annuity for him by the studio head of publicity . He is mentioned twice in Disney ' s 1973 film " The World ' s Greatest Athlete " . Thorpe is featured as a ghost figure in the 1994 film " WindRunner : A Spirited Journey " , where he is portrayed by Russell Means .