A New Look at the Donner Party

A New Look at the Donner Party The Native American perspective on a notorious chapter in American history is being reveaied by the excavation and study of a pioneer campsite

ULIE M. SCHABLITSKY

n late October 1846, an early Donner Party are remembered for out for CaUfornia from Springfield, snowstorm stranded 22 men, cannibalizing their dead in a lastrditch Missouri, in 1846. Hoping to make Iwomen, and chUdren in Alder effort to survive. the Sacramento VaUey by autumn, Creek meadow in CaUfornia's Sierra Almost 10 years ago, I arrived at they feU behind schediile after takr Nevada. The squaU came on so fierce- Alder Creek meadow, a few mues outr ing an untried shortcut through the ly and suddenly that the pioneers had side of Truckee, CaUfomia, with my Great Salt Lake Desert. When an just enough time to erect sleeping excavation codirector KeUy Dixon, of October snowstorm hit, the party was tents and a small structure of pine the University of Montana, and just 100 miles from their destination. trees covered with branches, quUts, a team of coUeagues to search Most of the migrants sought and the rubber coats off their backs. for archaeological evidence of shelter in cabins near Truckee Living conditions were crowded, and that miserable winter. The Lake (now Donner Lake), their wool and flannel clothes were story of the Donner Party is a while the famiUes of brothers useless against leaks and the damp famiUar tale, weU knovm from George and Jacob Donner, ground. As time passed, seasoned the accounts of survivors and their teamsters, and trail wood became so hard to find that rescuers. But, as in many cases, vndow Doris Wolfinger made the stranded pioneers, known as the archaeology provided a differ Donner Party, were often without fire ent perspective and forced us to In Alder Creek meadow for days. Huddled under makeshift reevaluate what we thought (top), archaeologists shelters, the migrants ate charred we knew about this dark chap- excavated many bones, bone and boiled hides until they ter in Westem history such as this horse bone with chop marks (left), that turned to more desperate measures The Donner Party was a wagon attest to the desperation of to survive. Today the people of the train of about 80 pioneers who set the hungry pioneers. www.archaeology.org 53 George Donner Jr. (far left), son of Jacob Donner, survived the winter of 1846-47, when he was just 10 years old. The Donners might have fared better had they accepted the help of the Washoe tribe, pictured here in 1866.

1980s and early 1990s. Using metal ter in the otherwise heroic tale of pio- detectors, he found a mid-nineteenth- neers who settled the American West. century site there, but was cautious I pictured hundreds of wagons, packed about declaring it the Donner camp ftdl of provisions, with calico-clad in the absence of human bones or any children bouncing along the Oregon remains of a campfire. Building off Trail to a better Ufe. Not unexpectedly his work, my research focused on the Van Pelt saw the story of the Don- layout of the camp, close study of the ners—and all westward expansion, for pioneers' fragmented belongings, and that matter—as a self-serving expedi- the decision to winter at Alder Creek. identifying evidence of cannibalism. tion for land and wealth. To him, their By the time the pioneers were One can imagine the morbid appeal troubles were symptomatic of greed foxind in late February 1847, half the of discovering human bones with rather than bad luck. members of the Donner Party had butchery marks among other, more Van Pelt urged me to seek out the died. Both survivor and rescue party genteel artifacts such as floral deco- welmelti, or the tribe now known as accounts note human bodies disar rated teacups, but I felt uncomfort^ the northern Washoe, to ask what ticulated and butchered. Survivor Jean able and even guilty about consider their oral history says of the Donners. Baptiste Tioideau, George Donner's ing the grim possibilities. "They were there, and probably saw hired hand, admitted to eating the Part of this anxiety comes from them," he said. Van Pelt also warned remains of his employer's fouryearold being a Generation X archaeolo- me against the negative energy that nephew. Even before the last survivor gist trained in the age of NAGPRA lingers in such places of suffering. He made it out of the mountains, the Cali- (Native American Graves Protection removed from his neck an elaborately fomia Star newspaper wrote, 'A woman and Repatriation Act), a federal law carved shell pendant given to him by sat by the body of her husband, who that protects Native American graves. a Florida shaman. On it, two animal had just died, eating out his tongue; Both the government and my men- spirits, called spilya ("coyote" in the the heart she had already taken out, tors taught me to avoid burial sites. Sahaptin language), danced, actively broiled, and eat fo'cl!" But as with Though I understood the legal and creating order from chaos. It would many tales of the "Wild West, there are logistical reasons for this, only when protect me through the turmoil of deeper and more complex truths to I began to work as a professional the Alder Creek dig. Van Pelt said. be found in the four months the Don- archaeologist did I appreciate the ners spent trapped. Our archaeological Native American perspective. My onths before arriving in investigations revealed the nuances work with Pacific Northwest tribes Califomia, I studied maps, of daily life, the party's mounting des- taught me a respect for their culture Mhistorical narratives, and peration, and, surprisingly that these that changed my approach to human the notes from earlier archaeological unfortunate migrants were not alone remains, regardless of ancestry So investigations. Hardesty had found in the motmtains. before digging at Alder Creek, I the eastern edge of the site, but not its turned to the person who taught me western extent, so we planned to move he approximate location of the most about Native American cul- from the known to the unknown. The the Dormer Party encamp- ture, Jeff Van Pelt, a member of the first shovelfuls of dry soil were sterile, Tment at Máer Creek has been Confederated Tribes of the UmatÜla but inches belovv; we began to find known since the late nineteenth cen- Indian Reservation in Oregon. glass shards, once part of beverage and tury, but the precise camp spot had Wan Pelt knows the story of the sauce bottles, mixed with fragments of never been pinpointed. Don Hard- Dormers, but he held a different vie-w^ decorated and blue sheU-edge teaware. esty an archaeologist and professor point than I did. From my European- We also discovered a particularly rivet^ emeritus at the University of Nevada, American perspective, the Dormers ing artifact—a small piece of writing Reno, searched for the site in the were an unfortunate, hard-luck chap- slate, possibly used by the Donner chil-

54 ARCHAEOLOGY • May/June 2012 UTE CULTURE & BEADING WORKSHOP With Rebecca Hammond Create your own work of beaded art. Learn how history has shaped Ute artistic expression. August 5-11,2012

A THOUSAND YEARS The archaeological team, co-led by the author (right), located the hearth the OF TAOS HISTORY Donners had used that notorious winter. Explore the archaeology, history, and cultures of the northern Rio dren or adults in camp to make notes, In addition to delicate ceramics— Grande vaiiey of New Mexico. figure math problems, practice letters, seemingly out of place in the wilder September 25- or just doodle. This nineteenth-century ness, but right in Une with a Donner October 1,2012 notepad may have helped the children campsite—the assemblage included pass the time, and perhaps even made wagon hardware, even horseshoe nails their situation feel a little more normal. and oxen shoes, clear evidence that Deeper in the soil, just below these the animals that pulled the pioneers more recently discarded objects, we into the meadow never left it. At last, ROW (ANYON i found Native American stone tools— we had found our long-term pioneer AR(HAEOLOCKAL (ENTER | large basalt flakes and bifaces that campsite, but we were still looking for Discover the Past, Share the Adventure ¡3 reminded us who was there first. evidence of starvation and despera- 800.422.8975 The soil that held pioneerera arti- tion. So we turned to the most abtan- www.crowcanyon.org/travel facts contained occasional pockets of dant artifact on the site, bone. ash and charcoal that gave me hope The dig crew picked out thousands that an elusive Donner hearth might of tiny calcined (burned) bone frag- be near. As our team pushed south ments from the site. Whenever we through the site, the soil became found a "big" bone—a piece at least STOP! more ashy, and larger pebbles and the size of a thumbnail—I handed it pieces of lead shot appeared. My over to our faunal analyst, Guy Tasa of We have had complaints from trowel followed the edge of a dark the Washington State Department of subscribers who have received charcoal stain vnth a thin layer of Archaeology and Historic Preserva- fraudulent renewal notices, sub- ash: the hearth. Shannon Novak of tion. I waited for each of his verdicts scription offers, and invoices Syracuse University, one of the team's as he turned the bones around in his from companies who are bioarchaeologists, knelt beside me hand a few times, but all he ever said NOT authorized agents or was, "Medium to large mammal." This representatives of ARCHAEOLOGY with a whisk broom, further delineate magazine or the Archaeological ing the feature. She exposed bone frustratingly broad category includes Institute of America. fragments that appeared larger than everything from goats to buffalo, but any we had seen before, and some in this region and context more likely Your renewals should only be exhibited cut, saw, and chop marks. represents cow, horse, deer, eUc, bear sent to our offices in Palm Coast, As my trowel continued to scrape ...and human. We know from survi- FL or Boston, MA. You can verify the edge of the charcoal, I discov- vor accounts that the Alder Creek your subscription status by calling ered a large ceramic plate sherd, face pioneers consumed the animals they 1-877-ARKY-SUB (1-877-275-9782) brought with them, including cattle, or checking online at down. Everyone gathered around as www.archaeology.org/sub5cribe I picked up the fragment from the horses, and perhaps even their faith- exact place it was broken by one of ful dog. Uno. When the last of the The publishers of ARCHAEOLOGY the Dormers. A "hooray" rang out as meat was gone, they turned to boiling and many other popular maga- I turned the artifact over to reveal a animal hides and charring bone so zines are working together to scalloped edge rimmed with a vibrant they could eat the pieces by crunch- stop our subscribers from being cobaltrblue glaze. The hearth feature, ing them between their teeth. harassed by these notices. For updates please go to approximately two by two-and-a- Back at the laboratory, with his www.archae0l09y.org/fraud half feet, anchored our collection of collection of comparative bone sam- artifacts that fanned out to the east. (continued on page 62)

56 ARCHAEOLOGY • May/June 2012 (continuedfrom page 56) snow, or their aim was off, A fragment of a writing slate may pies at hand. Tasa listed the cuisine on how could they have have been used by the children ended up eating and adults of the Donner Party the Donner Party desperation menu: for lessons, notes, and speaks, small rodent, rabbit-sized animal, these animals? perhaps, to their desire to canine, cow, and deer. But no human. maintain a sense of normaicy. Only a very small percentage of the fter the dig I bone could be visually identified. returned home ther contact. These stories, and Out of 16,204 bone fragments (5.03 Ato Oregon, but the archaeological evidence that pounds), over 13,000 pieces remained there was one thing left appears to support them, certain- unidentified. Because I knew the to do. We still needed to ly complicated my interpretation faunal analysis would be a challenge, check in with the welmelti, ofthe Donner Party event. The I sacrificed a few bone fragments to the northern Washoe, to learn if migrants at Alder Creek were a DNA laboratory in California, but their ancestors passed down stories not surviving in the mountains the results were inconclusive. The about the Donner Party The welmel alone—the northern Washoe were bone had been cooked and boiled ti are thought to have Uved in that there, and they had tried to help. before it spent over 150 years in acid- region for centuries, and Alder Creek Historical archaeologists combine ic soil, degrading the DNA beyond was just mues from one of their vil- anthropology, history and science to detection even by twenty-firstr lages. Although they usually wintered reconcile the human experience with century forensic technology Tasa had in lower elevations, Hving off food archives, oral history, and physical evi- another idea. Gwen Robbins Schug, stores gathered throughout the year, dence. More often than not, there are an anthropologist at Appalachian it would not have been unusual for a contradictions in these data, reminding State University can identify animal welmelti to strap on a pair of round us that we can never truly know the species by observing bone struc- snowshoes, or shumélli, and go ice past. But when the pieces fit together, ture. It is not a common method for fishing or hunting on higher ground. we are provided vidth possible sce- archaeologists, but was worth a try We asked ethnographer Penny Rucks, narios of what may have taken place Using an optical microscope to who has more than twenty years of hundreds of years ago. In this case, the observe osteons, or the fundamental experience with the local tribes, to absence of cannibalized bone forced structural units of bone, Schug found ask the welmelti if the pioneer trag- us to give up trying to answer who 85 bone fragments that belonged to edy had survived in their tribal nar was butchered and how it was done. cow, deer, horse, and dog. But again, rative. Rucks reached out tojo Ann Instead, we had to find answers to there were no human bones. This, of Nevers and Lana Hicks, who agreed questions about life in camp from the course, does not mean that the Don- to share the wel mel ti story, with the crumbs of domestic debris and animal ners did not practice cannibalism. understanding that they did so to bone. Our intense desire for informa- Our excavations might have missed honor their ancestors. tion drove us to seek out cutting-edge the human remains, or if the Dormers Until now the Native American technology and reach out to a group ate only organs and flesh, leaving the perspective has been left out ofthe of people who I thought played only bone unprocessed and unbumed, the telling ofthe Dormer tragedy not a peripheral role in this pioneer trag- skeletons may have decomposed in because the welmelti (id not remem- edy When I considered the subtle the acidic sou. A third possibility is ber the pioneers, but because they archaeological findings within their that the human bone simply remains were never asked, or perhaps were proper cultural landscape, an unex- undetected in our collection. Although not ready to share. Their oral tradi- pected narrative was born. This new the absence of identifiable human tion recalls the starving strangers who perspective is one that I believe gives bone was an interesting problem, I camped in an area that was imsuitable us a better understanding of what the was much more intrigued by what we for that time of year. Taking pity on Dormers experienced and whom they did&nà: None ofthe survivor accounts the pioneers, the northern Washoe met in the mountains during that from Alder Creek mention success- attempted to feed them, leaving rab- notorious winter. • fully hunting and killing rabbit or deer. bit meat and wild potatoes near the We also found lead shot and spme camps. Another account states that Julie M. Schablitsky is a senior research from lead casting, suggesting the pio- they tried to bring the Donner Party a archaeologist at the University of Oregon, neers had attempted to make ammuni- deer carcass, but were shot at as they chief archaeologist at the Maryland tion for their guns. Perhaps one of the approached. Later, some welmelti State Highway Administration, andan Dormer Party members or rescuers observed the migrants eating human editor and contributing author of An had been successfiil at hunting wild remains. Fearing for their lives, the Archaeology of Desperation: Exploring game. But if the Dormers found them- area's native inhabitants continued to the Donner Party's Alder Creek Camp selves too weak to hunt in the deep watch the strangers but avoided fur (University of Oklahoma Press, 2011).

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