DNA to identify victims of wagon train cannibals

[emad]

April 17, 2005
Sunday Times
DNA to identify victims of wagon train cannibals
John Harlow, Los Angeles



DNA tests being carried out on the remains of pioneers from a doomed Wild West wagon train may establish whether a Victorian gunsmith from Sheffield was eaten by fellow travellers.

John Dutton, 28, signed up with an 81-strong party led by George Donner, a prosperous farmer, that set off in April 1846 on a 2,500-mile trek from Springfield, Illinois, bound for San Francisco.

The pioneers came to grief in blizzards in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains the following winter and began to die of cold and starvation. The Donner Party, as the group is known, has become synonymous with disaster and despair to generations of American schoolchildren and has spawned memorials, films and even a musical.

Dutton volunteered to set off over the mountains on snowshoes as part of an expedition called the Forlorn Hope, but covered only a few hundred yards before his strength ran out. He is said to have sat down in the snow, lit his pipe and “died without complaint”.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-1572666,00.html

[Auntie Bush]

1. I can't access their website. Can anyone post a few more paragraphs?

[CatWoman]

2. try this link

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-1572666,00.html

[medeak]

3. early freeper?

Some survivors changed their names, living on quietly, but one who boasted openly of how many people he had eaten then grew rich in the gold rush and opened a successful restaurant serving “a variety of rare meats”.

[Trajan]

4. A similar story at LA Times ....

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-donner12apr12,0,2420185.story?coll=la-home-headlines

COLUMN ONE

Deeper Into the Donners

Descendants of the pioneers who perished that terrible winter look to archeologists for fresh clues. Still missing: hard proof of cannibalism.

By Eric Bailey
Times Staff Writer

April 12, 2005

TRUCKEE, Calif. — The clues are covered by snow now, 158 winters removed from events that haunt these hills and the history books.

Back before railroads and interstates and ski towns, the families of George and Jacob Donner hunkered down here during the terrible winter of 1846-47, snowbound in a pine-ringed meadow a couple miles north of the old pioneer trail now flanked by vacation homes.

We all know the Donner Party story — or at least think we do. A wagon train of 81 emigrants is trapped in the Sierra. Desperate rescue attempts flag, nearly half die and many survivors resort to eating the dead.

But the soil still holds secrets. Those long-ago tales of cannibalism have endured for generations without scientific proof.

Intent on bringing a full account of the Donner Party to light, a team of archeologists has over the last two summers combed a 10-by-20-foot checkerboard of earth with the meticulous care of homicide detectives.

They've deployed ground-penetrating radar and turned to DNA tests more common in murder cases. Forensic tracking dogs sniffed the site. Call it CSI: Donner Party.

-snip-

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

17. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

18. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[emad]

9. Wow, Dulcey...that one sure hit a nerve! Great sleuthing.

*****

[LiberallyInclined]

8. why does the very thought of cannibalism seem to freak some people out?

human are animals too. I'm not saying that cannibalism should be aregular thing- but in extreme situations where the choice is cannibalise or die, pass me a knife and fork...there was the case of the soccer team in the plane crash in the Andes- they resorted to eating what was basically "people jerky" in order to survive. i don't understand why some people find it ghoulish in those situations- there was a recent episode of CSI: Miami where it happened among some people adrift in a life-boat, and the detective on the case apparently seemed to think that it would be better to die yourself from starvation, than to nibble on a dead friend's flesh- i just don't understand that kind of thinking- isn't survival the point?

[DulceDecorum]

10. Racism is what is freaking us out

There is NO ACTUAL EVIDENCE to demonstrate that non-white people routinely ate each other.
It is a Western myth
designed to create revulsion
and a justification for the massacre of the victims of this hoax.

LOOK at what happens to ANY non-white group of people
just after the West labels them as cannibals.

We are protesting the oncoming genocide.
We are protesting against quack-scientists and their bogus eugenics.
We are protesting against misinformation and disinformation and outright LIES.
There will be no silence of these lambs.

We now return to you to your fava beans and your nice Chianti.

[LiberallyInclined]

12. oh...

:eyes:

[Name removed]

15. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[petronius]

21. Weren't the Donners et al. white?

Perhaps I missed something in all that up-thread deletia, but I don't see how testing the myth of Donner Party cannibalism relates to genocide or racism. Enlighten me?

[DulceDecorum]

22. The Donner Party cannibals were all white.

The deleted threads result from an accusation of cannibalism being leveled against Native Americans and the resultant spirited defense.

The genocide and racism comments pertain to that discussion.

In mid-December, guided by the Indians Salvador and Luis, fifteen of the trapped emigrants calling themselves the "Forlorn Hope" set out in their snowshoes for Sutter's Fort, about 100 miles (160 km) away. Soon they were lost and their rations ran out. Caught without shelter in a raging blizzard, eight of the company died. In desperation, they resorted to cannibalism to survive. Luis and Salvador refused to participate, and as a result died, and were consumed by the others.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donner_Party

[Liberty Belle]

20. These people didn't wait for others to die;

Some, such as the Indian guides, were apparently murdered.

[Hayduke]

11. Donner, party of 5, your table is ready.

*

[RedCloud]

13. Wow this is really breaking news!

1846!

Maybe it gives new meaning to the phrase "I would really like to have you over for dinner!"

[Piperay]

16. Interesting...as a Californian

I got a lot of this in school and then read several books on my own, I look forward to hearing the final outcome.

[DulceDecorum]

19. Self delete.

Game Over.