The Native American tribes and relatives of the late Olympic athlete Jim Thorpe are asking the United State Court of Appeals for extra time to pursue a review of an Oct. 23 Supreme Court ruling that denied their request to exhume Thorpe's body from his namesake borough and move it to Oklahoma.

Notice of the request was sent Friday to borough, Michael Sofranko, Ronald Confer, John McGuire, Joseph Marzen, W. Todd Mason, Jeremy Melber, Justin Yaich, Joseph Krebs, Greg Strubinger, Kyle Sheckler and Joanne Klitsch.They had filed for a rehearing, which was denied on Feb. 5.Jim Thorpe, multi-sport Olympic gold medalist, died in California in 1953 without a will. His estate was assigned to his third wife, Patricia, who buried him in what is now the borough of Jim Thorpe.His body has been interred along Route 903 in the borough since 1954. But the Sac and Fox tribes, and William and Richard Thorpe, argue that a 1990 federal law ordering federal agencies and institutions that receive federal funding must return Native American cultural items and human remains to their respective peoples gives them the right to take the body back to Thorpe's native Oklahoma.The tribes and family members had argued that because Thorpe was Native American, laws governing Native American artifacts applied to his body.The court disagreed, ruling that the laws were meant for museums, which the borough is not.The court ruled 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.The tribes and family members have asked Judge Samuel Alito, circuit justice for the United States Third Circuit Court of Appeals, for an additional 60 days to file their petition. Without the extension, they would have to file the document by May 4. With the extension, it would be due July 6.The tribes and William and Richard believe the extension is warranted because they have a strong case for a review, that the case is important to federally recognized Indian tribes, they are members of a small tribe and need the extra time, and because they have recently been offered help from a new source, the Stanford Law School Supreme Court Litigation Clinic, and it needs the additional time to prepare the request.