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...

[bannie]

:-) Sonny, your tummy's growling: Here, have a bite out of gramma's arm.

[HairOfTheDog]

Hey - you're cuttin' into his butt!

Well what sort of meat do you want?

Well not ~BUTT~!

[al baby]

LOL I wont even go there

[roadrunner96]

I read the news stories on Jeffrey, but did not know about the rest of the family.

[al baby]

Shes ka boobs are good

[dynachrome]

I will check it out.

[rwfromkansas]

The article says at the beginning that the Donner family was separated from the rest of the group, and that is why they did not participate in the cannibalism.

It still says there was cannibalism, just that the Donners themselves did not take part in it.

[bannie]

Hands HairOfTheDog a breast.

[bannie]

Yike! Will I get bannied over that????

[EveningStar]

Not yet. It's in my Amazon shopping cart. :)

[NormsRevenge]

:Archaeologists Mike Kelly, left, and Mark Hale, dig down to the 'culture-bearing deposit' at the site of what is thought to have been a Donner Party camp near Truckee, Calif., July 14, 2004. These scientists who set out to prove or disprove tales of cannibalism by members of the legendary Donner Party, who were marooned in the Sierra Nevada for the long winter of 1846-47, presented their findings Thursday Jan. 12, 2006, at a conference of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Their report could change the way the Donner family goes down in history.(AP Photo/Debra Reid, File)

[rwfromkansas]

I probably better get Netflix. I am rather sickened by how much money I have spent on movies in the past couple months. It is frankly about the only thing I spend money on besides school (am a college student), but I would rather see that money go to savings or something. And hey, Netflix is just 10 bucks for one out at a time. That would definitely save money. How has your experience been?

[andysandmikesmom]

I just saw that South Park episode last nite, where Cartman, kills and cuts up that kids parents and feeds them to him in the chili...

Scott Teneman(not sure of the spelling), Must Die...

[roadrunner96]

Not if it's in good taste ;)

[HairOfTheDog]

Heh... Remind me never to p*ss Cartman off ;~D

[IronJack]

It may be a rhetorical quibble, but the term "Donner Party" is correct. The Donners were the leaders of the expedition, and thus, it is proper to hang that name on the group.

However, the implication that the Donners were necessarily cannibals just because other members of the doomed party were is not logically valid.

Now Alfred Packer ... THERE'S a cannibal!

[rwfromkansas]

That is a pretty gross but hilarious episode. It is characteristic Cartman that he would go that far for revenge.

[bannie]

hahaha! Well, it's no longer "veal."

[rwfromkansas]

Exactly. Some people seem to be getting the idea that this means there was no cannibalism among the group, but that is not what the article is saying.

[andysandmikesmom]

HEHE...I have become such a fan of South Park, that I watch them every nite for an hour on Ch. 11...as soon as it comes on, my hubby growls, "Cartman"...we both love that guy...