The tribe and relatives of the late Olympic athlete Jim Thorpe on Tuesday asked the Supreme Court to review an October 2014 ruling that denied their request to exhume Thorpe's body from it's resting place in his namesake town and move it to his native Oklahoma.

If granted, they would argue their case again before a nine-judge panel.

At issue is the interpretation of the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, which requires agencies and institutions that receive federal funding to return Native American cultural items and human remains to their respective peoples.

Sac and Fox and Thorpe's sons, Richard and William Thorpe, believe the law applies to the borough's possession of Thorpe's body. U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo in Scranton in April 2013 agreed, ruling that the borough was considered a museum under NAGPRA's definition because it received federal funds for water and sewer projects.

The borough appealed, and Third Circuit Court of Appeals on Oct. 23, 2014, overturned the ruling, saying that the laws were meant for museums, which the borough is not. The panel of judges wrote that although the arrangement to have Thorpe's body buried in the borough, far from his birthplace, was unusual, it should not be exhumed for reburial just because he was a Native American. Further, the law did not apply to the borough because Thorpe's remains were given to it by his wife.

In their petition for review, the Sac and Fox Nation and Thorpe's sons argue that the ruling "thwarts NAGPRA's conferral of power on Native Americans to determine the appropriate religious treatment and final disposition of their people's remains."

The law "defines 'museum' as 'any institution or State or local government agency (including any institution of higher learning) that receives Federal funds and has possession of, or control over, Native American cultural items," the petition states.

The law includes human remains in its definition of cultural items, according to the petition.

The Sac and Fox Nation and Thorpe's sons sought to appeal the Third Circuit court ruling, but were denied on Feb. 11. They then filed the petition with the help of the Stanford University Law School's Supreme Court Litigation Clinic.