Scientists: Donner Family Not Cannibals [Donner Party story debunked?]

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 1/12/06 | Scott Sonner

[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...

[The Right Stuff]

Thanks! It was as humorous as I remembered!

[Petronski]

I like The Saint too. It's well done, for what it is. It's a better Bond film than the last half dozen Bond films.

[durasell]

Yeah, maybe that's it. Kilmer is a good actor, though crazy as hell. If you ever get a chance watch Dr. Moreau (sp?) carefully. There's a scene when all hell breaks loose on the island, he is actually filmed with a pillow up the front of his shirt doing a dead on impersonation of Brando...what maniac decided to cast Kilmer and Brando in the same movie?

[Riley]

It can be. I think I'm going to cut it down to two soon, and one of those will be the consumption of beer.

[Doctor Stochastic]

Have to give the Donner's a pass on this one.

[tubebender]

If Mr. Donner and his followers had waited 160 years they could have stopped at the soon to be built Cabelas near Reno and picked up all kinds of winter gear and freeze dried food plus a GPS unit...

[sharkhawk]

A good example of this drive to survive is the soccer team whose plane crashed in the Andes. A movie "Alive" was made about their experiences. It is a scary question, What would you do to survive? These young men didn't kill anyone, yet had to resort to cannibalism to survive. Chilling.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Not likely; What I understood was they were thinly slicing muscle tissue (legs, thigh, calves, etc.) off of the bodies of the deceased members, NOT burning and cooking the whole body. So, no burned bones at all.

The bodies had been dead for a while (kept (unburied) in the 12 foot+ snowdrifts, so the meat had to be boiled to become edible. I think the researchers were looking for the wrong info: Besides the stigma of cannibalism is so great that the survivors, no matter how hideous, would NEVER have admitted it unless they actually did it.

Also, even after the first rescue parties made it back across the Sierra Mountains, a few still ate their dead, since final rescue didn't happen until almost April.

[sandbar]

>>>As I've said before, I'm a barbarian, my clan comes first, last and always. While most other people cling to the veneer of civilization with all of it's taboos and mindless restrictions like a drowning man to a life preserver, I'm not so constrained.>>>

I agree wholeheartedly! I've had vegetarians ragging on Nugent and say they would rather starve than eat a deer. I said "You have obviously never starved".

[Redleg Duke]

I was told that the reason there are so many Portugese in the Santa Clara Valley was that they were the only thing that the Donner Party wouldn't eat!

[Monterrosa-24]

"...Then they butchered their mules.....later their horses. They were still starving..."

Ha! An early version of Atkins !!!

[Dr.Zoidberg]

I've seen it, it's a good flick.

I do have to wonder just how much those guys actually knew of basic survival techniques, the movie portrayed them as fairly ignorant. The will to survive makes up for a bit of knowledge, but that only goes so far.

Still, it was an enjoyable and thought provoking film.

[BIGLOOK]

Good point!

No one asked why Hyenas don't starve during famines though. It's because the have jaws that can crack bones to get at marrow.

Use the info....call it the Monterossa Diet....and make a fortune:>)

[Dr.Zoidberg]

I've been hungry, real hungry. Eat anything I could find, beg or steal hungry.

I spent quite a few months homeless during the late 90's. A long story I won't be recounting. It was a learning experience I will never forget.

Most veggieburgers are ignorant pampered children who have never been more than 30 minutes away from mommy and daddy's table or bankcard. I find them ridiculous at the best of times, worthy of contempt at the worst. And to be ignored at all times.

Man is a pinnacle predator. We are not meant to graze like cattle.

[Nachoman]

Hey, Sasquatch has to eat something.

[tubebender]

You could be right. In California Saquach eats Fruits and Nuts...

[FreedomCalls]

There's a Monty Python sketch for almost every possible occasion. :-)

And if you find yourself thinking about and trying to match a Monty Python sketch to every occasion, that's something else altogether. I suggest you get out more often. ;-)

[Riley]

I suggest you get out more often. ;-)

I'm a computer geek (and I'm okaaaaay), we don't do that.

[Intolerant in NJ]

"The Donner Party's experience was bad, but it wasn't as bad as everybody's been told,"...clearly it wasn't a total disaster - according to the History Channel, one of the survivors later became the owner of a successful restaurant in San Francisco......

[flying Elvis]

Check your college library. If you go to a medium to large school, a lot of the time they will have good new releases and some hard to find classics.