Posted on 01/12/2006 6:06:49 PM PST by TFFKAMM
There's no physical evidence that the family who gave the Donner Party its name had anything to do with the cannibalism the ill-fated pioneers have been associated with for a century and a half, two scientists said Thursday.
Cannibalism has been documented at the Sierra Nevada site where most of the Donner Party's 81 members were trapped during the brutal winter of 1846-47, but 21 people, including all the members of the George and Jacob Donner families, were stuck six miles away because a broken axle had delayed them.
No cooked human bones were found among the thousands of fragments of animal bones at that Alder Creek site, suggesting Donner family members did not resort to cannibalism, the archaeologists said at a conference of the Society for Historical Archaeology in Sacramento, Calif.
"The Donner family ended up getting the stigma basically because of the name," said Julie Schablitsky, one of the lead authors. "But of all the people, they were probably the least deserving of it."
The sawed and chopped animal bone fragments, recovered during an archaeological dig over the past three years, do suggest "extreme desperation and starvation," the study said. One of the animals eaten was a pet dog — presumably "Uno," mentioned in some of the children's later writings.
"The Donner Party's experience was bad, but it wasn't as bad as everybody's been told," said Schablitsky, a historical archaeologist at the University of Oregon's Museum of Natural and Cultural History.
The findings by Schablitsky and Kelly Dixon, an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Montana, don't necessarily disprove the accounts of cannibalism told by rescuers and survivors stranded in a fierce winter storm in the mountains southwest of Reno and north of Truckee, Calif...
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
ping
Noone can say what they would or wouldn't do if they were starving until they are in that situation. If my children were starving, I would not mind them eating me, especially if I were already dead. I would pray for their mentality after something like that, but I would hope they stayed alive.
I'd almost forgotten that one. You know it's quality if it is a Troma film release!
Whe i make reservation or leave my name at resturants I always use the the name Donner When they call us its always funny Donner party donner party
That's next on my list at Netflix!
Did you see Orgazmo?
eat me ping.
Only those who lick their lips while watching others.
Gramma?
uuhh, who brought the meatloaf?
It's excellent... We highly recommend it for all Trey and Matt fans. :~D
Sometimes, the world is black.
And tears run from your eyes.
And maybe we'll all get really sick.
And maybe we'll all die.
So...
Let's build a snowman!
We can make him our best friend.
We can name him Tom or we can name him George!
We can make him tall, or we can make him not so tall.
Snowman!
He'll have a happy face, a happy smile, a happy point of view.
If you build me a snowman, then I'll build one for you.
So, let's build a snowman!
We can make him our best friend.
We can name him Bob or we can name him Beowulf!
We can make him tall, or we can make him not so tall.
Snowman!
Hey!
(Tapdance solo)
He'll have a happy face, a happy smile, a happy point of view.
If you build me a snowman, then I'll build one for you.
Snowman! Snowman! Snowman!
Too thawed. LOL!
Of course they wouldn't cook the meat. Where would you get fire on a mountain?
You bet Gramma
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