The petition of The Sac and Fox Nation and the late Jim Thorpe's sons asking for a Supreme Court review of the ruling that allowed the town to keep its namesake buried there, includes:

• The 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act requires agencies and institutions that receive federal funding to return Native American cultural items and human remains to their respective peoples.• In this case, Thorpe's remains were given to the borough in 1954 by his estranged wife in exchange for $500. Thorpe was estranged from his third wife, Patsy Thorpe, who was not Native American.The legendary athlete "spoke often of his desire to be buried on tribal land as required by Sac and Fox religious tradition."• Following a heart attack in the early 1940s, Thorpe told his son, William Thorpe, that he wanted his body returned to Sac and Fox country for his last rites and burial."He also told son Richard Thorpe the same thing as late as 1948.• When Thorpe died in 1953, his sons were serving in the military, William in Korea with the U.S. Army, and Richard near San Diego with the U.S. Navy.Two weeks after his death, Thorpe's body was brought to Shawnee, Oklahoma, for burial following a two-day ritual.• Before the ritual could be completed, Patsy Thorpe arrived with police, and took the casket bearing his remains.Despite objections by relatives and the Sac and Fox Nation, Patsy Thorpe began negotiating with "several institutions and municipalities" to bury his body.They included Mauch Chunk and East Mauch Chunk, which, according to the petition, "were willing to strike a deal, believing that they could use Thorpe's body to generate a tourism industry in the economically failing area."Patsy Thorpe received $500 from the towns in exchange for Thorpe's remains. The towns merged under a new name, the Borough of JimThorpe.• Thorpe's body was not treated in a respectful manner, his grave was vandalized, and the borough conducted several "faux-Indian" ceremonies at the mausoleum, the petition states.• NAGPRA has been found to apply to the Coast Guard, which possessed two remains, and the Tennessee Valley Authority, which possessed over8,000.