Cremation of South Sudanese accident victim draws complaints
8 min readBy Harold Reutter
harold.reutter
Published: Monday, August 29, 2011 2:03 PM CDT
This much is certain.
James Lual, a native of Sudan, was killed in an early morning traffic accident on Thursday, Aug. 18, on Highway 30 west of Grand Island. His body was cremated the following day.
This also is certain.
William Wiir Akot, Lual’s cousin from Sioux Falls, S.D., said he and Sudanese people from South Sudan strongly oppose the practice of cremation.
Stephanie Riak Akuei of Grand Island said the people of the Republic of South Sudan, who are Christian, do not even have a word for the practice in their native language.
“They have a word for fire, and they have a word for when somebody is burned on the skin, but they have no word for cremation,” she said. Akuei said the lack of such a word shows how foreign and even abhorrent the concept of burning a body is to the Sudanese people.
Aside from the fatal accident, the cremation and Akuei’s and Akot’s statements that cremation offends Sudanese culture, no certainty exists, but much debate does.
Hall County Attorney Mark Young said Lual’s body was cremated under the county’s rules for indigent burial. He cited a Dec. 11, 2007, resolution approved by the Hall County Board of Supervisors as the authority for the cremation, which was performed at Livingston-Sondermann Funeral Home.
However, Dan Naranjo of All Faiths Funeral Home said local practice has differed from a literal reading of the words. Following the passage of the 2007 resolution, Naranjo said, he has done traditional burials, even though they were indigent burials paid for by the county.
He said those burials were performed when family members were present to indicate that they preferred a burial over cremation.
He said that makes him wonder whether the 2007 resolution was intended to govern all indigent burials or just the indigent burials when family members are not available to express their preferences. Naranjo believes it is the latter.
His belief is supported by a December 2007 newspaper article written by Independent reporter Tracy Overstreet that said the following:
“The cremation-only policy applies only to those indigent deceased who lack a next of kin, said Chief Deputy Hall County Attorney Michelle Oldham.
“At this time, it does not apply to an indigent deceased who has family that desires a traditional burial, but that may be coming, Oldham said.”
Oldham is now a private-practice attorney in Hastings.
The 2007 article also said the change was made because cremation costs much less than burial.
Oldham’s comments might be described as evidence of “legislative intent” because the resolution itself says nothing about next of kin.
Additional legislative intent can be inferred from the fact that the county board established a committee in March 2008 to review indigent burial policies. The review was needed because the county and local funeral homes were operating under a policy that was last approved in 1986, according to another Overstreet article.
Her 2008 article revealed what the county was paying local funeral homes for indigent burials, with the implication being that 22-year-old prices were not fully reimbursing funeral homes for their costs. Naranjo was contacted by The Independent because he was one of the people on the committee.
He said the committee never made a recommendation to increase reimbursement because 2008 was when the economy began causing local governments severe financial problems, making it a bad time to ask for higher reimbursements.
For his part, Young pointed out that the resolution’s language makes absolutely no mention of next of kin. At the same time, Young said, his office tries to be sensitive to both the religious and cultural sensibilities of both individuals and identifiable ethnic and religious groups.
In addition to the polar extremes of either finding the deceased’s next of kin or not finding any surviving relatives is a huge gray area in the middle. That gray space is when next of kin is found, but the relatives say they will neither pay for nor attend funeral services.
That brings up the biggest point of contention between Akot and local authorities.
Hall County Sheriff Jerry Watson said personnel in his office first located Lual’s estranged girlfriend, who was in Omaha. Lual and the estranged girlfriend had a daughter. Girlfriends, even those who are mothers of the deceased’s children, are not considered next of kin under Nebraska law.
However, the girlfriend directed Watson’s employees to two cousins, one of whom was Akot, Watson said. Akot was contacted Thursday evening, the same day the fatal accident occurred.
Watson said that, after the conversation, people in his department believed Akot would not be traveling to Grand Island and would not pay for the funeral.
Akot disputes that.
He has jobs at both Avera Heart Hospital in Sioux Falls, where he was working on Thursday, and Casey’s General Store, where he was scheduled to work a Friday afternoon and evening shift, so he did not immediately come to Grand Island.
Akot said that, during that initial conversation, he did talk about needing to find resources to help him with the funeral. But he said he was not talking about financial help, but names of individuals, funeral homes and a church.
“I’ve helped with funerals before in Sudan,” said Akot, who worked within the context of a Sudanese community to plan services in his native country.
But he knew he would be expected to make all the final decisions himself this time, so he asked about resources to help him plan an American funeral. Although Akot said he would not have paid for Lual’s funeral himself, he said the Sudanese community would have come together to pay the expenses.
Akuei affirmed that, saying “Sudanese community” does not just mean Grand Island residents. Since Lual’s death, hundreds of dollars have been sent to Grand Island from Sudanese people living in San Diego, Calif., she said.
Akot was upset he was never told during the initial conversation that cremation was the likely outcome if he did not immediately say he was coming to Grand Island and paying for the funeral.
“There was no transparency,” said Akot, who added he also telephoned the Hall County’s Sheriff’s Department on Friday just before his work shift started. “I should have been informed.”
He said he and two friends began driving to Grand Island on Saturday. That’s when he got a call on his cellphone from Lual’s estranged girlfriend, who informed him that Lual had been cremated. Akot said that was the first he had heard of cremation.
Kevin Wood of Livingston-Sondermann, which is in charge of arrangements, said he did the cremation Friday afternoon when informed by the Hall County attorney’s office on how to proceed.
When asked by The Independent, both Naranjo and Wood said Nebraska state law says that funeral homes must either embalm, cremate, bury or refrigerate the deceased within 24 hours. If a body is refrigerated, a funeral home can wait 72 hours before having to proceed with embalming, cremation or burial. Wood said he has no refrigeration capabilities at his funeral home.
After learning his cousin had been cremated, Akot spent not only Saturday and Sunday in Grand Island, but also much of Monday, so he and Akuei talked to people in the Sheriff’s Department, county attorney’s office and Wood at the funeral home. The talks helped, as many people expressed regret about what happened.
What may have helped most of all was Wood’s offer to provide a coffin at his own expense for Lual’s funeral services, which were on Saturday.
“I’m going to take a picture of it,” said Akot, who said he will give the photograph to Lual’s mother when he goes on a planned trip to Sudan in late fall.
Wood said he wished it was possible to go back in time to do things differently, and that is why he offered the coffin for the funeral.
Young said his office is solicitous of people’s religious and cultural practices when it comes to indigent burial. For example, both devout Jews and Muslims typically would want the dead buried within 24 hours.
Young recalled when a mandatory autopsy prevented a Muslim from being buried within the desired time period, although the burial took place not long after 24 hours had elapsed. However, he kept the family fully informed so they felt respected.
As a funeral director, Naranjo said, he wants to make sure that not only immigrants’ lives are honored, but also that their loved ones’ deaths are honored by observing their cultural and religious traditions as long as those practices conform to Nebraska law.
Resolution No. 07-088 was approved by the Hall County Board of Supervisors on Dec. 11, 2007.
Whereas, pursuant to Neb. Rev. Stat. Section 71-1339(8), a county board is authorized to control the disposition of a deceased person if that person is an indigent person; and,
Whereas, the Hall County board wishes to establish a policy which would require the remains of indigent deceased persons whose disposition over which the county board has control should be created; and,
Whereas, the Hall County board wishes to delegate the authority to authorize said cremation to the county attorney of Hall County.
Now, therefore, be it resolved by the Hall County Board of Supervisors: The Hall County attorney shall have the authority to authorize the cremation of an indigent person, pursuant to such authority given to county boards in Neb.Rev.Stat. Section 71-1339(8). The Hall County attorney shall not be required to obtain any other approval from the Hall County board in addition to this resolution in order to exercise such authority.
http://www.theindependent.com/articles/2011/08/29/news/local/13826144.txt
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