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 ...
6: How we feeling, Captain?
C: Not too good. I...I feel so weak.
2: We can't hold out much longer.
C: Listen...chaps...there's still a chance. I'm...done for, I've...got a gammy leg and I'm going fast; I'll never get through. But...some of you might. So...you'd better eat me.
?: Eat you, sir?
C: Yes. Eat me.
?: Iiuuhh! With a gammy leg?
C: You didn't eat the leg, Thompson. There's still plenty of good meat. Look at that arm.
5: It's not just the leg, sir.
C: What do you mean?
5: Well, sir...it's just that -
C: Why don't you want to eat me?
5: I'd rather eat Johnson, sir!
?: So would I, sir.
C: I see.
?: I'm not a salad...everyone's gonna eat me!
?: Uh, well.
5: What, sir?
?: Go ahead, please, but I won't -
?: Oh nonsense, sir, you're starving; ducking.
1: No, no, it's not that.
?: What's the matter with Johnson, sir?
1: Well, he's not kosher.
5: That depends how we kill him, sir.
1: Yes, that's true. But to be perfectly frank I...I like my meat a little more lean. I'd rather eat Hodges.
?: Oh well, all right.
5: I still prefer Johnson.
C: I wish you'd all stop bickering and eat me.
1: Look. I tell you what. Those who want to can eat Johnson. And you, sir, can have my leg. And we make some stock from the Captain, and then we'll have Johnson cold for supper.
Crew: (cacophonous) Hmm, yes, good idea, excellent thinking, very good, I don't suppose we could have Hodges in the morning, jolly good idea, etc.
There's a Monty Python sketch for almost every possible occasion. :-)
Pinky: The reindeer are inviting the elves to join them at a party at Donner's house.
Brain: Hmm. Somehow the idea of joining the Donner party is unappealing.
How many parents howled with laugher while the kids had no idea what it meant.
Heh... (He's supposed to be the villain in the story)
Agreed...I was absolutely grossed out at that episode, but also found it hilarious...
I have had it for a while. I like movies - but can't find the ones that I want at my local video store.
I have about 100 in my queue right now and am on the three at home plan. It's great.
I have watched so many more movies than I did before. Too much trouble to go to the store and pick from what they have left.
I give it four stars.
"How TF should I know?"
GREAT flick.
I always have a thing for the bad guy, or the villain...dont know why that is...even when I was dating, I was always drawn to the 'bad' boys....the hubby says that is why I married him, he is so 'bad'...
Did they find the cookbook that says "Tastes like chicken?"
Actually this is a fascinating story. One of the survivors trekked down to the Johnson Ranch and they got help from Sutters Fort to help with a rescue mission. He went down the mountain on old wooden skis as i recall. This probably saved many lives.
Snow shoes. One of the party was from one of the nordic countries, and he knew how to make 'em. There were several parties having various amounts of success in leaving that place.
or- "I don't think I like your attitude."
I see ;~D
Yeah, I was quoting the denouement with the "team leader" lassie.
Damn, what a good film. Frankenheimer's a genius.
Coffee?
Let's eat the coward, he tastes like chicken!
Nice reflexes.
May I have a drumstick, please?
:-D
I know- but I'll take either answer. Actually- it's about time for another screening.
'Lassie?' I think not.
On an RV trip on the Oregon Trail, we stopped at a spring near (Marysville? KS?) that had a rock which was engraved by the Donner party. It was still clear as a bell.
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