Insomniac-Net ANSWERS --
Friday[08], Feb 19, 2016 [ C - C - C ]
Tonight's Topic: "Donner's Family Dinner"
ANSWERS = [ C - C - C ]
Good morning/evening, everybody! Thank you for joining us last night.
We hope you discovered something interesting during the time we spent together on the Insomniac Net last night.
Thanks to you all for playing along -- it was a lot of FUN for us. Hopefully, you had fun too!
-- The ever-delightful Shelley [KF7TBA] and just plain old LW [K7LWA] (email K7LWA.INS@gmail.com).
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=================
Tonight's Topic: "Donner's Family Dinner"
ANSWERS = [ C - C - C ]
Good morning/evening, everybody! Thank you for joining us last night.
We hope you discovered something interesting during the time we spent together on the Insomniac Net last night.
Thanks to you all for playing along -- it was a lot of FUN for us. Hopefully, you had fun too!
-- The ever-delightful Shelley [KF7TBA] and just plain old LW [K7LWA] (email K7LWA.INS@gmail.com).
(Please Note: The Net Controller's Answers are always CORRECT (even if they aren't every time!)
Please check out Winsystem's Insomniac Trivia Net page.
You can get these Questions & Answers at the Yahoo-groups' Messages Link.
=================
Historical archaeologist Julie Schablitsky at Donner Party Dig
On
this day, February
19, 1847, the first rescuers reached the
surviving members of the snowbound Donner
Party, stranded for months by severe winter
weather in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.In most recountings, the Donner Party tragic story begins with the wagon train travellers being stranded in the high county around Truckee Lake (aka "Donner Lake" -- about 13 miles northwest of Lake Tahoe, Nevada).
However, for most of the 90+ emigrants (including 31 from the Donner and Reed families) who set out from Springfield, Illinois during the 1846 summer, is the claim of survivors resorting to cannibalism really true?
(The journey is a remarkable account of bad decisions (and timing), deception (by California promotor, L.W. "Cut-off" Hastings), hazardous travel conditions and weather, broken wagons and killed animals, warrior attacks, family feuds and murder, etc. Additional information (with photos) can be found on our Blog.)
So, how much do you know about the Donner Party's tragic story?
Please choose your answers from any of the 3 (reuseable) answers of "A", "B", or "C" (if applicable!) for each question.
Ok, burrow down under those toasty blankets, and serve up your answers a la carte!
++ "Donner's Family Dinner" ++
Question #1: Rumors of cannibalism began almost immediately after the first rescue party found and started evacuating most of the survivors. How many other rescue parties arrived later to help?
A. None, or
B. One, or
C. Three
News of the stranded Donner Party traveled fast to Sutter’s Fort, and a
rescue party set out on January 31. Arriving at Donner Lake 20 days
later, they found the camp completely snowbound and the surviving
emigrants delirious with relief at their arrival. Rescuers fed the
starving group as well as they could and then began evacuating
them. Three more rescue parties
arrived to help, but the return to Sutter’s Fort proved
equally harrowing, and the last survivors didn’t reach safety until
late April....
[SOURCE: HISTORY Channel -- Donner Party rescued (02/19/1847)]
[SOURCE: HISTORY Channel -- Donner Party rescued (02/19/1847)]
Question
#2: According to most historical
sources, how
many survivors of the Donner Party eventually reached
California?
A. at least 15, or
B. at least 25, or
C. at least 45
A. at least 15, or
B. at least 25, or
C. at least 45
Victorian
Era journalists, who embellished the accounts provided by the 47
survivors,
largely fueled the legend of the Donner Party cannibalism. The
survivors, 11 men and 36 women and children, fiercely denied the
allegations. Although one man, Louis Keseberg, filed and won a
defamation suit, he was still forever known as Keseberg the Cannibal.
[SOURCE: Donner Party Ate Family Dog, Maybe Not People (Nov 27, 2012)]
----------
... and the last survivors didn’t reach safety until late April. Of the 89 original members of the Donner Party, only 45 reached California.
[SOURCE: HISTORY Channel -- Donner Party rescued (02/19/1847)]
[SOURCE: Donner Party Ate Family Dog, Maybe Not People (Nov 27, 2012)]
----------
... and the last survivors didn’t reach safety until late April. Of the 89 original members of the Donner Party, only 45 reached California.
[SOURCE: HISTORY Channel -- Donner Party rescued (02/19/1847)]
Question
#3: As
of 2012, numerous historical, archaeological, and forensic
studies about verifying
Donner Party cannibalism have suggested ...?
A. That cannibalism did actually occur conclusively, or
B. That cannibalism did not actually occur conclusively, or
C. That cannibalism may have actually occurred, but the evidence is still not conclusive.
A. That cannibalism did actually occur conclusively, or
B. That cannibalism did not actually occur conclusively, or
C. That cannibalism may have actually occurred, but the evidence is still not conclusive.
[K7LWA's
NOTE:
Of course, as with all scientific investigations, current theories and
conclusions may be overturned with studying more sample material and
using improved techniques -- but as reported in Archaeology Magazine Volume
65 Number 3, May/June 2012, the evidence
supports the result: that
cannibalism may
have
actually occurred, but the evidence is still not
conclusive.:
...Historical archaeologists combine anthropology, history, and science to reconcile the human experience with archives, oral history, and physical evidence.
More often than not, there are contradictions in these data, reminding us that we can never truly know the past.
But when the pieces fit together, we are provided with possible scenarios of what may have taken place hundreds of years ago.
In this case, the absence of cannibalized bone forced us to give up trying to answer who was butchered and how it was done.
Instead, we had to find answers to questions about life in camp from the crumbs of domestic debris and animal bone....
[SOURCE: Letter from California: A New Look at the Donner Party by Julie Schablitsky in Archaeology Magazine Volume 65 Number 3, May/June 2012]
I have included on our Blog additional reports about Ms. Schablitsky's 2012 article -- which remarkably reports that cannibalism did actually occurred -- and also, did not actually occur.
However, for tonight's purposes, the correct ANSWER is "C"!]
...Historical archaeologists combine anthropology, history, and science to reconcile the human experience with archives, oral history, and physical evidence.
More often than not, there are contradictions in these data, reminding us that we can never truly know the past.
But when the pieces fit together, we are provided with possible scenarios of what may have taken place hundreds of years ago.
In this case, the absence of cannibalized bone forced us to give up trying to answer who was butchered and how it was done.
Instead, we had to find answers to questions about life in camp from the crumbs of domestic debris and animal bone....
[SOURCE: Letter from California: A New Look at the Donner Party by Julie Schablitsky in Archaeology Magazine Volume 65 Number 3, May/June 2012]
I have included on our Blog additional reports about Ms. Schablitsky's 2012 article -- which remarkably reports that cannibalism did actually occurred -- and also, did not actually occur.
However, for tonight's purposes, the correct ANSWER is "C"!]
--------
Additional reports about Ms. Schablitsky's 2012 article:
RESULTS:
- Analysis of bones discovered at the Donner Party campsite found no evidence for cannibalism.
- The members did resort to consuming the family dog, cattle, deer and horses.
- Slate pieces and china shards reveal the members tried to live with dignity.
The Donner Party, a group of 19th century American pioneers who became snowbound in the Sierra Nevada and supposedly resorted to cannibalism, may not have eaten each other after all, suggests a new study on bones found at the Donner's Alder Creek campsite hearth in California.
Detailed analysis of the bones instead found that the 84 Donner Party members consumed a family dog, "Uno," along with cattle, deer and horses.
Cattle, likely eaten after the animals themselves died of starvation, appear to have been their mainstay.
The study is the first to show that the Donner members successfully hunted deer, despite the approximately 30 feet of snow on the ground during the winter of 1846-1847. The horses are thought to have come from relief parties that arrived in February and could have left a few of their animals behind.
The paper, which will be published in the July issue of the journal American Antiquity, is also the first to prove the theory that the stranded individuals ate their pet dog.
"They were boiling hides, chewing on leather and trying desperately to survive," project leader Gwen Robbins told Discovery News. "We can see that the bones were processed so heavily -- boiled and crushed down in order to extract any kind of nutrients from them."
Robbins, an assistant professor of biological anthropology at Appalachian State University, and her team produced thin sections from the hearth bones and examined them under high magnification in order to measure each basic structural unit and link the bones to particular animals.
No human bones were identified.
"What we have demonstrated is that there is no evidence for cannibalism," said Robbins.
[SOURCE: Donner Party Ate Family Dog, Maybe Not People (Nov 27, 2012)]
--------
[K7LWA]: However, the same evidence is reported by Discovery.com with a different result:
And when recent excavations of a Donner campsite at nearby Alder Creek found no clear evidence of the taboo, initial news reports suggested we might have gotten the story wrong from the beginning. So what’s the truth?
The Alder Creek excavations, conducted in 2003 and 2004, turned up more than 16,000 bone fragments in all, including the remains of rodents, rabbits, deer, horses, oxen and cattle.
They also found canine bones, supporting accounts by survivors that they ate their pet dogs.
It’s clear that Donner Party members went to great lengths to avoid eating their own dead: The stranded migrants consumed a glue-like substance made from boiled animal hides, along with charred bones, twigs, leaves and bark.
But despite the lack of human bones recovered from the Alder Creek site, researchers concluded that cannibalism may have occurred there in the days between the departure of the first relief party in late February and the last survivors’ abandonment of the camp in mid-March.
While cannibalism may indeed be part of the Donner Party story, the Alder Creek excavations help reveal the more complicated truth behind their harrowing struggle to survive, and the desperate efforts they made to stave off such a gruesome solution.
[SOURCE: Did the Donner Party really resort to cannibalism? January 29, 2013 By History.com Staff]
REFERENCES:Additional reports about Ms. Schablitsky's 2012 article:
RESULTS:
- Analysis of bones discovered at the Donner Party campsite found no evidence for cannibalism.
- The members did resort to consuming the family dog, cattle, deer and horses.
- Slate pieces and china shards reveal the members tried to live with dignity.
The Donner Party, a group of 19th century American pioneers who became snowbound in the Sierra Nevada and supposedly resorted to cannibalism, may not have eaten each other after all, suggests a new study on bones found at the Donner's Alder Creek campsite hearth in California.
Detailed analysis of the bones instead found that the 84 Donner Party members consumed a family dog, "Uno," along with cattle, deer and horses.
Cattle, likely eaten after the animals themselves died of starvation, appear to have been their mainstay.
The study is the first to show that the Donner members successfully hunted deer, despite the approximately 30 feet of snow on the ground during the winter of 1846-1847. The horses are thought to have come from relief parties that arrived in February and could have left a few of their animals behind.
The paper, which will be published in the July issue of the journal American Antiquity, is also the first to prove the theory that the stranded individuals ate their pet dog.
"They were boiling hides, chewing on leather and trying desperately to survive," project leader Gwen Robbins told Discovery News. "We can see that the bones were processed so heavily -- boiled and crushed down in order to extract any kind of nutrients from them."
Robbins, an assistant professor of biological anthropology at Appalachian State University, and her team produced thin sections from the hearth bones and examined them under high magnification in order to measure each basic structural unit and link the bones to particular animals.
No human bones were identified.
"What we have demonstrated is that there is no evidence for cannibalism," said Robbins.
[SOURCE: Donner Party Ate Family Dog, Maybe Not People (Nov 27, 2012)]
--------
[K7LWA]: However, the same evidence is reported by Discovery.com with a different result:
And when recent excavations of a Donner campsite at nearby Alder Creek found no clear evidence of the taboo, initial news reports suggested we might have gotten the story wrong from the beginning. So what’s the truth?
The Alder Creek excavations, conducted in 2003 and 2004, turned up more than 16,000 bone fragments in all, including the remains of rodents, rabbits, deer, horses, oxen and cattle.
They also found canine bones, supporting accounts by survivors that they ate their pet dogs.
It’s clear that Donner Party members went to great lengths to avoid eating their own dead: The stranded migrants consumed a glue-like substance made from boiled animal hides, along with charred bones, twigs, leaves and bark.
But despite the lack of human bones recovered from the Alder Creek site, researchers concluded that cannibalism may have occurred there in the days between the departure of the first relief party in late February and the last survivors’ abandonment of the camp in mid-March.
While cannibalism may indeed be part of the Donner Party story, the Alder Creek excavations help reveal the more complicated truth behind their harrowing struggle to survive, and the desperate efforts they made to stave off such a gruesome solution.
[SOURCE: Did the Donner Party really resort to cannibalism? January 29, 2013 By History.com Staff]
Donner Party Ate Family Dog,
Maybe Not People (Nov
27, 2012)
HISTORY Channel -- Donner Party rescued (02/19/1847)
Did the Donner Party really resort to cannibalism? January 29, 2013 By History.com Staff (with a disturbing cannibalistics "reenactment" video!)
If you are in archaeological forensics used in investigating the Donner Party, please review:
Excavating the Donner Party by Dana Goodyear (The New Yorker 2006-04-17 AMERICAN CHRONICLES)
=================
++ QUOTE OF THE
NET ++ -- Young Virginia Reed (to her cousins back
home in 1847):
"Never take no cutoffs and hurry along as fast as you can."
[Source: Excavating the Donner Party by Dana Goodyear]
=================
=================
Please include you name, Callsign, and those correct answers.
Good luck everyone!
Shelley [KF7TBA] & LW [K7LWA]
K7LWA.INS@gmail.com
=================
Next Week: Bad, Bad Harry! -or- Hummers -or- Worms
Later: How About Some Brown Sauce for the Prime Rib
================
Thank you!
Shelley [KF7TBA] & LW [K7LWA]
================
Posted 2016-02-20 00:50PT
BLOGed 2016-02-20 00:50PT
- 30 -
HISTORY Channel -- Donner Party rescued (02/19/1847)
Did the Donner Party really resort to cannibalism? January 29, 2013 By History.com Staff (with a disturbing cannibalistics "reenactment" video!)
If you are in archaeological forensics used in investigating the Donner Party, please review:
Excavating the Donner Party by Dana Goodyear (The New Yorker 2006-04-17 AMERICAN CHRONICLES)
=================
"Never take no cutoffs and hurry along as fast as you can."
[Source: Excavating the Donner Party by Dana Goodyear]
=================
| BLOG
LINKS: Questions = 2016[08]Q -- Ins-Net Qs for Feb 19, 2016: "Donner's Family Dinner" Answers = 2016[08]A -- Ins-Net As for Feb 19, 2016: "Donner's Family Dinner" |
Please include you name, Callsign, and those correct answers.
Good luck everyone!
Shelley [KF7TBA] & LW [K7LWA]
K7LWA.INS@gmail.com
=================
Next Week: Bad, Bad Harry! -or- Hummers -or- Worms
Later: How About Some Brown Sauce for the Prime Rib
================
Thank you!
Shelley [KF7TBA] & LW [K7LWA]
================
Posted 2016-02-20 00:50PT
BLOGed 2016-02-20 00:50PT
- 30 -
Posted by K7LWA.INS at 2016-02-20 00:50
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