A special ceremony was held Saturday at the Jim Thorpe Mausoleum, just north of Jim Thorpe, the town, on Route 903, to celebrate the 138th birthday of Jim Thorpe, the man.

The opening of the ceremony featured Don “Wild Eagle” Wuebber performing the Smudging, a Native American ritual that involved the burning of herbs and plants. to purify and cleanse negative energy, bring good luck, and protect a person or place.

“Smudging is purifying for a good heart, good mind, and good spirit,” Don Wild Eagle said. “For everything that’s around us that we could be celebrating, giving thanks to the Creator, and the Creator can see that through the smoke.”

Don Wild Eagle’s son, Joachim “Star Cloud” Wuebber, performed the hoop dance.

“The Hoop Dance is for bringing what has happened in the world today; World War I, World War II, Korea,” Don Wild Eagle described. “We’re trying to bring back the mending of the earth, it’s the circle of life, to bring it together, that we are a nation in the Eyes of the Creator, to show that we can live together.”

Guest speakers included Congressman Ryan Mackenzie, State Rep. Doyle Heffley, Sen. David Argall, Jim Thorpe Borough Council President Gregory Strubinger, and Carbon County Commissioner Michael Sofranko.

In addition, Charles J. Sgrillo, a treasurer with the Middle Atlantic Amateur Athletic Union, unveiled a plaque featuring the AAU shield on one of the statues. The AAU has been instrumental in helping some of the restorative efforts of the mausoleum property.

The series of five plaques that surround “The Spirit of Thunder and Lightning” sculpture near the mausoleum were updated and reopened to the public at the ceremony. Some of the updated information includes the reinstatement of his Olympic medals in 1982, and his being honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom award on May 2, 2024.

Members of the Thorpe family visited from Oklahoma for the event. Jamie Thorpe, Taj Thorpe, Jade Kaskaske, and Mary Thorpe took part in the event.

“It’s an honor,” Mary Thorpe, a granddaughter of Jim Thorpe, said. “I appreciate it; it’s an honor to be able to come up here and be with everybody; and see my Grandfather. I hope that his spirit knew that we were coming and he was excited that we were going to be here today.”

Skyler DiRobbio-Barth, a student at the Jim Thorpe High School, sang the National Anthem.

The Medicine Horse Singers provided the Native American music for the ceremony.

Jim Thorpe was born around May 28, 1887, near current-day Prague, Oklahoma. A child of Sac and Fox and Potawatomi Indian bloodlines, as well as French and Irish roots, he was given the name Wa-Tho-Huk, meaning “Bright Path,” but christened Jacobus Franciscus Thorpe.