One day after asking the Supreme Court to hear its argument for the return of Jim Thorpe's body to his native Oklahoma, the Sac and Fox Nation took its campaign to the streets Wednesday.

The tribe launched a "Bring Jim Thorpe Home" campaign in Oklahoma City with readings from a play at the Leadership Square Atrium."It was (Thorpe's) wish to be buried in Oklahoma," Chief George Thurman, of the Sac and Fox Nation, said Wednesday. "It's also the wish of his family. Our people come home."Richard and William Thorpe, sons of the Olympic gold medalist and star football player, have joined the tribe in trying to have Thorpe's body exhumed and removed from his burial site along Route 903.The borough and Thorpe's grandsons, John Thorpe and Michael Koehler, approve of the body staying in Carbon County.Having died without a will in 1953, Thorpe's estate was assigned to his third wife, Patricia. She stopped an Indian burial ceremony in Oklahoma before it could be completed and received $500 from what were then the towns of Mauch Chunk and East Mauch Chunk in exchange for Thorpe's remains.Sandra Massey said Wednesday her mother was present during the disrupted ceremony."We've been treated as relics, not people," she said.The Sac and Fox Nation, along with Richard and William, 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 Oklahoma.U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo in Scranton in April 2013 ruled that the borough was considered a museum under the law's definition because it received federal funds for water and sewer projects.After the borough's appeal, the 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 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."This is wrong, we need to fix this," said John E. Echohawk, Native American Rights Fund executive director.William G. Schwab, a Lehighton attorneyrepresenting the borough, said the opposition's"argument simply turns centuries of state family and estate law on its end. The Third Circuit simply found family and spousal rights superior to tribal rights. I would expect the Supreme Court will do likewise," he said.Wednesday's event included a readingof "My Father's Bones," co-written by Mary Kathryn Nagle and Suzan Harjo, a recent recipient of thePresidential Medal of Freedom.The play depicts the efforts of Jim Thorpe's sons to recover their father's remains."The only choice is to bring our case to the Supreme Court," Thurman said.Both sides have lined up additional legal help should the Supreme Court hear the case.The University of Pennsylvania Law School Supreme Court Clinic will be assisting the borough at no cost, while the Sac and Fox Nation, and William and Richard Thorpe will use the Stanford Law School Supreme Court Litigation Clinic.