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|| 361 28 Question Remains T UESDAY morning: Cha Moua returns to the cemetery to perform the Hmong ritual of feeding the spirit [tawm tshais]; questions about the autopsy report, Thai boy, and investigation in Thailand; suspicions and conspiracy theories; the question of exhumation. “OFFER BREAKFAST” [TAWM TSHAIS], A RITUAL THAT TAKES PLACE FOR THE FIRST THREE DAYS AFTER THE BURIAL DAY CHA MOUA, Hmong friend; Hmong funeral organizer In the Hmong tradition, for the first three mornings after the burial I take food to the cemetery to feed Jerry’s spirit. I do this because I represented Jerry’s family at his funeral. On the first morning after the burial I carry a lunch sack to Jerry’s grave. In the sack is a piece of cooked meat and a serving spoon of rice, all wrapped in tin foil, and a can of beer to drink. I tell Jerry’s spirit, “Jerry, I come this morning to bring you breakfast. Here’s your food. Come and eat.” That’s it. On the first day I hang the meal on a tree branch at the grave. That meal is supposed to hang in the air, not sit on the ground, because spirits don’t walk on the earth like humans, they travel by air. Like a hummingbird ! They come and suck it up then GO! That meal will hang where I leave it until it falls down by itself. After I deliver the meal I come more than halfway from Jerry’s grave to the cemetery gates and I put a stick there as a marker. I put the stick down and I say, “You wait here, Jerry. Tomorrow I will come again and bring you breakfast here.” The second morning I go to the marker, not all the way to the grave, because I already led his spirit to where the stick is. I come to the stick and bring him the breakfast food: meat, rice, and a drink. I hang the sack lunch on a bush and say, “Jerry, here is your second breakfast. Come and eat.” Then I pick up the stick again and take it to the gates of the cemetery. When I stop and put the stick down I tell him, “You wait here. Tomorrow I will come again.” Usually you are leading the spirit back to your home. If Jerry were part of my family , that day I would take the stick all the way to the corner of my house. But I didn’t lead Jerry to any house. Not to my house and not to Louise’s house either. I cannot take him to his mom’s house because how is she going to do the rest of the rituals when Jerry’s spirit returns to her house? Special words need to be said and daily feedings for thirteen days [puv tsug kaum peb hnub]. How can Louise do that? 362 || Hog’s Exit On the third morning, I know that Jerry loved fishing so I take the stick and put it near the Orange Street bridge on the bank of the Clark Fork River. I put his breakfast where the stick is, and I call him: “Jerry, this is the third morning. I bring you breakfast here. Come eat!” I leave the stick there and I say, “Jerry, after you eat you can stay here and fish for as long as you want!” Mrs. PAT DONTIGNY, former Missoula County public health nurse It wasn’t until after the funeral was over that I started to ask the Hmong questions. Then their attitude about how they believed Jerry was killed started coming out. If you talk to our government, it was a gas leak. If you talk to the Hmong, he was killed. So the big question about this funeral was why was there such a fight to keep this casket closed? There should not have been any public health concern since there was no communicable disease. If there was some embalming done and there were no concerns other than disfigurement, they could have opened that casket. Even if he looked bad, I don’t think you could have shocked the Hmong whatsoever. I was a public health nurse, and to me the excuses for not opening the casket were inadequate . Why was there such a fight to keep the casket closed? Ms. MYRA L. SHULTS, high school friend of Jerry Daniels Louise told me that the State Department or the CIA or...

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