God is teaching us so much, and making school so satisfying. It has become nearly impossible to imagine doing anything else. We are acutely aware of it here. Here men prepare part of an old canoe as the coffin for a family member who has suddenly died. The concept of disease as a cause of death is given little credence in the traditional belief system.
Nobody dies primarily of disease.
Death is a direct result of spiritual conflict, most often caused by the purposeful actions of another person, or sometimes by an evil spirit. The most important thing one must remember about the indigenous beliefs is that their foundation is the co-equal existence of the spiritual and the physical. In truth, the traditional beliefs are entirely animistic. Nothing physical exists without a spiritual component. Furthermore, the physical world does not contribute to the troublesome moments in life.