No, there were others before him. Some of the Baseball players who played in MLB before Jim Thorpe were ...
1) Louis Francis Sockalexis was from the Penobscot tribe and played outfield in MLB between 1897-1899 for the Cleveland Spiders of the National League. He was an excellent athlete and played football and ran track as well as playing baseball. He was the first Native American to play in MLB.
2) Charles Albert Bender was from the Ojibwa tribe and an MLB pitcher who began his career with the Philadelphia Athletics in 1903. He won 212 career games, was on 3 World Series winning teams, and elected to the baseball Hall of Fame in 1953.
3) John Tortes Meyers was from the Cahuilla tribe and an MLB catcher who began his career with the New York Giants in 1909. He played for 9 seasons and had a career batting average of .291 and played on 4 World Series teams, unfortunately, all losing teams. His best season was 1912 when he hit .358 and led the National League in on base percentage at .441.
Jim Thorpe
Jim Thorpe was the first Native American to play in the NFL.
Jim Thorpe
Yes Native Americans were allowed to play before Jim Thorpe. Typically the racial barrier in sports was specifically directed towards African Americans and generally players from Latin, Native American or other ethnic groups were allowed to play. One such example is Jimmy Claxton who was one of the first to brake the professional baseball color barrier when he played two games for the Oakland Oaks. Claxton was allowed to play because it was believed he was Native American from a Oklahoma tribe; However within a week, a friend of Claxton revealed that he had both Negro and Native American ancestors, and Claxton was promptly fired.
Jim Thorpe.
There is a picture of Jim Thorpe and his first wife Iva Miller in the book Jim Thorpe, Original All-American by Joseph Bruchac.
Jim thorpe
Jim Thorpe (link below) was probably the first American Indian to play pro football. He played professionally with the Pine Village Pros in Indiana in 1913 and later went on to become the first president of the NFL, where he also played for the Oorang Indians (an all-American Indian team) in Ohio.
Squanto was the Native-American who was honored at the first Thanksgiving.
barack obama is african american, NOT native american
Thorpe Seely's mother was Grace Thorpe, daughter of Jim Thorpe and his first wife.
Susan La Flesche Picotte was the first Native American doctor.