Researcher: Donner Party did cannibalize the dead after all
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Gwen Robbins, an anthropology professor at Appalachian State, identified the bones as those of cow, horse, deer, canine and rodent. Bones had been boiled repeatedly in an apparent effort to stretch the group’s food supply.
Robbins said last week that she agrees the initial news release, which has been withdrawn from the university’s site, “was not well crafted” and said she takes full responsibility for any misunderstanding that resulted.
“Certainly, our evidence cannot even be used to address that (cannibalism) question,” she said.
“Although some of the Donner Party members participated in cannibalism, no human bone was identified in the 85 fragments analyzed from the extensive bone sample at Alder Creek.”
She said the absence of human bones at the site might be because of the small number of bone samples analyzed, limited excavation of the area, and “complete decomposition of human remains” because of acidic soil.
“We have concluded that in addition to cannibalism, they consumed their animals and supplemented their diet with wild game,” Robbins said.
Donner Party experts noted the original news release got national attention, and that’s what a lot of people will remember.
“The way the release was worded, it made it sound like the firepit was representative of all the Donner Party camps, not just Alder Creek, where 22 (of the 81) people camped,” said Daniel James Brown, author of “The Indifferent Stars Above,” a nonfiction Donner Party book. “The press release was riddled with inaccuracies, but newspapers and websites printed it without verifying anything.”
For example, he said, the release said there were 85 people entrapped (there were 81), rescuers brought horses to the camp (they did not), and that “the legend of the Donner Party was primarily created by print journalists.”
Historians said the cannibalism had been reported by survivors, rescuers and others at the time and for years afterward.
“The documentary evidence is overwhelming,” said Frankye Craig of Reno, author of several Donner Party books including “Fateful Journey.” “But now, the misinformation that there was no cannibalism has been spread across the country.”
Researchers said cannibalism at Alder Creek took place during the last week of February (1847) and for a very short time.
“I doubt if they treated human bones the same way they had treated animal bones between November and February, by boiling them over and over,” Craig said.
Based on survivors’ statements, she said, human flesh was cut into slices and broiled, rather than boiled like the bones, and the pioneers might have treated human remains with more respect than animal bones. She said the cannibalism controversy detracts from the overall impact of the Donner story.
“I get angry when people look down on the Donner Party because of the cannibalism, as though they were depraved,” Craig said. “They were ordinary people, just like us, who faced extraordinary circumstances and did what they had to do to survive.”
Editor’s note: Frank X. Mullen Jr. is the author of the “Donner Party Chronicles,” a history.