Editorial: Let's respect tribal spiritual beliefs about autopsies

Two incidents since Saturday have made big news and have sparked much discussion and debate, as they should have — though, apparently, not yet among the right people.

First, on Saturday, a spiritual leader from the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe died after a car accident. Mushkoob Aubid was 65. His body was taken from Cloquet Memorial Hospital to the medical school at the University of Minnesota Duluth. An autopsy was planned, though its necessity was easy to question. Aubid’s vehicle was the only one involved in the accident, and he was its only occupant. Criminal questions need not be answered, and legal liability was irrelevant. Also, Aubid’s family and others said he had a heart condition and were confident it contributed to what happened. They were content with that, and law enforcement apparently didn’t suspect foul play.

The autopsy continued to be planned for anyway, despite the objections of Aubid’s family and others eager “to prepare his body for his journey to the next world,” as his widow, Winnie LaPrairie, told the News Tribune. The family’s spiritual beliefs include that a body remain intact.

A peaceful, message-sending gathering at UMD and a judge’s order were needed, troublingly, before the autopsy finally was called off and the issue resolved.

Then, on Tuesday, a member of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa was killed in an accident in Cloquet. Autumn Martineau was 24. Her body was taken to Hibbing, where the St. Louis County medical examiner planned an autopsy that, again, could be questioned. Martineau was a passenger in the two-vehicle collision, eliminating any issue of legal liability. And both her family and authorities appeared content the accident caused her death.