Exploring the Donner party`s Alder Creek Camp

An Archaeology
of Desperation
exploring the donner party’s
alder creek camp
Edited by
Kelly J. Dixon, Julie M. Schablitsky,
and Shannon A. Novak
University of Oklahoma Press : Norman
Contents
List of Illustrations
ix
List of Tables
xi
Acknowledgmentsxiii
Introduction1
Shannon A. Novak and Kelly J. Dixon
Part I. Locating
1. Sufferers in the Mountains: The Donner Party Disaster
Kristin Johnson
2. The Aftermath of Tragedy: The Donner Camps in Later Years
Kristin Johnson
31
63
Part II. Lingering
3. Historical Perspectives on the Archaeology of the Donner Party 89
Donald L. Hardesty
4. An Archaeology of Despair
101
Kelly J. Dixon
5. A Family in Crisis: Archaeology of a Survival Camp
133
Julie M. Schablitsky
Part III. Consuming
6. What Remains: Species Identification and Bone Histology
Gwen Robbins Schug and Kelsey Gray, with contributions by
Guy L. Tasa, Ryne Danielson, and Matt Irish
7. [Wo]man and Beast: Skeletal Signatures of a Starvation Diet
Shannon A. Novak
163
185
8. The Delicate Question:
Cannibalism in Prehistoric and Historic Times
G. Richard Scott and Sean McMurry
219
Part IV. Narrating
9. “Under Watchful Eyes”: Washoe Narratives of the Donner Party 255
Jo Ann Nevers and Penny Rucks, with contributions by
Lana Hicks, Steven James, and Melba Rakow
10. “All Remember the Fate of the Donner Party”:
History and the Disaster at Cannibal Camp
291
Will Bagley and Kristin Johnson
11. Concluding Thoughts
323
Kelly J. Dixon and Julie M. Schablitsky
Bibliography335
List of Contributors
367
Index371
Introduction
Shannon A. Novak and Kelly J. Dixon
Landscape, like “beauty,” is in the mind of the beholder and, as such,
varies widely from one personal or cultural perspective to the next.
Experience, history, value systems, relationships, circumstance,
and individual choices all play a part in how
landscapes are seen or described.
Paul S. Taçon
1999
An avid writer and accomplished schoolteacher, Tamzene Donner kept
a detailed journal of her family’s travels into the West. Like many other
women who would make the overland trek, Tamzene likely wrote about
her dreams and fears, the landscape and weather, friend and foe, life and
death.1 Along with these musings, she probably detailed mundane activities such as collecting wood and buffalo chips to fuel the evening fire,
preparing meals for her family and the teamsters, and attempting to keep
up with the mending, washing, and cleaning for her mobile community.2
In letters sent home to Springfield, Illinois, Tamzene described seeing
herds of bison, her moments of botanizing and reading, and her time
spent cooking for her family. In the end, writing journal entries would
have provided Tamzene comfort and a distraction from the hunger,
grief, and despair she and her family faced while snowbound in the
Sierra Nevada. Sadly, neither Tamzene nor her diary survived.
Thus, we are left to piece together the tragic events of the winter of
1846–47 from historical accounts and archaeological traces. Yet what
exactly is there to piece together? As Bagley and Johnson remind us in
chapter 10, there are now some three hundred histories, novels, films,
1
and children’s books based on the Donner Party. Most of these portrayals
rely on recollections and memoirs by those who survived or the reports
of men in rescue parties.3 These primary accounts are supplemented by
the more colorful tales of souvenir hunters or curious travelers who later
visited the abandoned camps. Others attempted to find material traces
of the party, though with varying degrees of success.4 Such a paucity of
sources often results in conflicting accounts, especially where the practice of cannibalism is concerned.
John (Jean-) Baptiste Trudeau,5 for example, who was a teenager and
hired hand, was responsible for some of the confusion. When recalling
his time stranded in the Sierra Nevada at Alder Creek, Trudeau first gave
an exaggerated account of eating “baby raw,” then retracted his statement and denied participating in the practice.6 Kristin Johnson discusses
this important topic (see chapter 2), noting that Eliza Donner Houghton,
who had just turned four when she was rescued in March 1847, was so
distressed by such tales of cannibalism that she sought to clear her family’s name. Houghton’s mission undoubtedly influenced Trudeau’s contradictory accounts.
In general, what we know about the Donner Party tends to be a thin
master narrative that has become part of the powerfully imagined
American West.7 This narrative remains simple: Good farming people
from the Midwest set out to make new homes on the western frontier. They dally a bit too long, take a wrong turn, and become trapped
in the mountains by an early winter storm. To survive, they resort to
cannibalism. We think that there is something more to learn from the
Donner Party saga, especially if we slow down the narrative, elaborate
on details, and reexamine the questions through an interdisciplinary
lens. By integrating and juxtaposing resources from history, ethnohistory, archaeology, bioarchaeology, and social anthropology, we consider
the experiences of the snowbound emigrants from a somewhat different
perspective. Rather than simply focusing on cannibalism—did they or
didn’t they?—our inquiry approaches the event as a historically, socially,
and contextually rich case that can be used to consider life and death
during the winter entrapment, as well as the human condition in desperate situations.8
Two field seasons of archaeological investigations at Alder Creek are
at the center of our inquiry. During the summer of 2003, survey and
excavations were initiated at Alder Creek with the goal of unequivocally
2i n t roduc t ion
linking an emigrant-era site with the Donner family. We were building
on the work initiated by archaeologist Donald L. Hardesty more than
a decade earlier, during which he and his crew identified a concentration of historic artifacts thought to be the Donner camp (see also chapter
3). Without finding a hearth, however, Hardesty was reticent to confirm
the site’s provenance.9 We began our study by relocating the area that
Hardesty and his crew had excavated in 1990; our adjacent test units to
the west quickly yielded glass and ceramic fragments along with burned
bone comparable to the materials found during the earlier excavations.
Near the end of the season, we found an ash deposit suggestive of a
nearby hearth. Encouraged by these discoveries, we returned to Alder
Creek the following summer and successfully delineated a hearth and
collected a wide array of associated artifacts and bone fragments.
Most of the authors in this volume presented their preliminary findings at the 2006 meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Since
that time, analyses have continued, debates have taken place, and a more
nuanced picture has emerged. Based on our discussions, we decided that
the most appropriate frame for our synthesis would be one that considers the flow of action and activities—human and otherwise—around
a particular moment in space and time. Yet to more fully understand
this moment, we must consider the various contexts within which the
entrapment took place.
In what follows, we first disaggregate “the Donner Party” into individuals, families, and relationships, as well as their distribution across
the landscape. To more fully understand the responses of these people
to the obstacles they encountered—and the contexts within which cannibalism was considered—we examine how kinship, class, and gender
were negotiated in Jacksonian America (1824–48). Through this social
and historical lens, seemingly inert archaeological remains can be used
to animate the past.
Social Structures
The Donner Party was a diverse contingent made up of some eighty
people from different ethnic, religious, and class backgrounds. For
example, the Kesebergs were German,10 the Breens were Irish, and teamster John Denton was English. The Breen family, in particular, has long
been associated with an Irish-Catholic identity.11 Catholicism is often
i n t roduc t ion3
highlighted in the Donner story due to Virginia Reed’s conversion experience in the mountains. At the age of twelve, Virginia recalled, “all at
once I found myself on my knees with my hands clasped, looking up
through the darkness, making a vow that if God would send us relief and
let me see my father again I would be Catholic.”12 At the time, reports of
a young girl renouncing her Protestant faith for that of a tradition associated with a disorderly working class would have been suspect in proper
society.13
Reports of Virginia’s behavior, in conjunction with those of cannibalism, may have been perceived as a degenerative effect of the wilderness
and a warning to those who would dare venture west.14 Danger was particularly acute in the region known at the time as Alta California, an
area that included the modern U.S. states of California, Nevada, Utah,
northern Arizona, and southwestern Wyoming.15 The region was widely
criticized by adventurers and the press as a place where “decent Americans” should not go (see chapter 10).16 The notion of what made a “decent
American” held special connotations in the mid-nineteenth century and
helps establish a context for considering the backgrounds of members of
the Donner Party.17
Victorian mores and norms emerged in tandem with industrialization
and a market economy.18 Global trade, technological advances, and mass
consumption perpetuated a stratified social order that cultivated acts of
gentility, dignity, and restraint.19 Thus, class tensions were very much on
the minds of those in the emerging middle class who attempted to set
themselves apart through actions and objects.20 Urban areas, especially
New York and Philadelphia, were the hubs of conspicuous consumption
and displays of civility. Taking tea, playing parlor games, and developing literary acumen were all ways in which middling families sought to
mimic elites and differentiate themselves from laborers. Such practices
were also adopted in rural areas, but with some adjustments to farm
life.21 There, land, livestock, and hired hands (or indentured servants and
slaves) were a means of signaling status, though teacups, trinkets, and
books were also desired and displayed. Such displays were also attempted
on the trail, although, in general, overland travel was a middle-class venture that required liquidating family assets.22
One of the enduring myths of the Donner Party centers on James
Reed’s “Pioneer Palace Car,” a purported luxury wagon whose ostentatious display would come to be blamed for the delays and travails faced
4i n t roduc t ion
by the emigrants. In the same memoir in which Virginia Reed reports
her conversion, she also describes riding in a unique family wagon,
equipped with sitting and sleeping areas.23 Although the interior “comforts and conveniences” were distinctive (as Kristin Johnson notes in
chapter 1) and reflect an idealized domestic space, later historians have
exaggerated Virginia’s description.24 Though not as grandiose in design,
George Donner’s “wealth enabled him to put together an extensive outfit
. . . one wagon contained considerable stocks of trade goods, a second
carried the gear, tools, and provisions for the journey, and his family
rode in a third” (see chapter 1). His brother, Jacob, was also able to afford
three wagons for the journey.
Besides the caravan of Donner wagons and Reed’s custom interior, the
most obvious display of class and capital was the ability to hire help. In
this regard, the Reed, Donner, and Graves families were distinct. The
Graves employed a single teamster, while the Donners and Reeds each
hired several men. The Reeds also traveled with Eliza Williams, their
cook, who had been with the family for years. On the trail, these distinctions would fuel tensions between individuals and families. By mid-September, “they were fragmenting” by both class and ethnicity: “Germans
stay with Germans. Irish stay with Irish. The rich among them . . . keep to
themselves.”25 By the time the contingent had reached the Sierra Nevada,
the “Donner Party” had dispersed into small groups.26 In consequence,
and most important for our purposes here, such fissioning would result
in families being trapped in two separate locations—the Lake (or Cabin)
Camp and the Alder Creek Camp (map I.1).
Separate Spheres
The majority of emigrants traveling with the Donner Party became
trapped near what is now Donner Lake, then called Truckee Lake. This
encampment initially held sixty persons, most of whom belonged to
unrelated nuclear families or were single men. Some seven miles northeast of the lake, twenty people initially occupied a second camp at Alder
Creek, and most of them were members of an extended kinship network.27 The vast majority of emigrants who occupied Alder Creek were
the children of George and Jacob Donner (figure I.1). Thus, while the
Lake Camp was a small community of sorts, the Alder Creek Camp was
one big family.
i n t roduc t ion5
North
America
Donner
Camp Sites
Prosser Creek
Reservoir
rC
Prosse
k
ree
Alder Creek
Camp
k
ree
rC
lde
California
Trail
A
re e
Trout C
k
Donner Lake
C
ld
o
C
iver
R
kee
Truc
Donner Cr.
Lake Camp
k
ree
0
2 miles
Syracuse University Cartographic Laboratory
Map I.1. The Donner Party’s Donner Lake and Alder Creek camps in what is
now Truckee, California. Courtesy of Joseph Stoll.
6i n t roduc t ion
Archaeologist Donald K. Grayson found that mortality in the Donner Party could be explained by demographics and kinship networks.28
He notes that the youngest and the oldest within the party were most
likely to succumb and that women were more likely to survive than men.
While only a third of the men survived, two-thirds of the women lived
because they were physiologically buffered, he argues, by their smaller
body size, lower basal metabolic rate, and higher proportion of subcutaneous fat. In addition to age and sex, Grayson also found that “the larger
the family with which a person traveled, the longer that person survived,
many lasting long enough to either escape or be rescued.”29 Indeed, men
who were listed as bachelors were the first to die.
While Grayson’s analysis is interesting, his findings for the “Donner
Party” are aggregated and do not distinguish between the two camp sites.
When the two camps are examined separately, some subtle but interesting
differences emerge. At the Lake Camp, the four adult men who survived
(Breen, Eddy, Foster, and Keseberg) were all fathers. At Alder Creek, two
single young men (Trudeau and James) in their mid-teens survived—both
were employees of the Donners. The only two family men at Alder Creek
were George and Jacob Donner, neither of whom survived. The men’s
advanced age may have been a mitigating factor in their deaths, though
Grayson notes that the sixty-two-year-old George is a significant outlier
among the men who succumbed. His extraordinary length of survival,
Grayson argues, was due to his incapacitated state and Tamzene’s care.30
Yet Grayson dismisses the unusual case of George and touts the normative findings as confirming “our understanding of some of the fundamental biological differences between human males and females.”31
This statement, like many others about the Donner Party, overlooks the
diverse biologies and biographies of the emigrants. The conflation of sex
and gender, moreover, fails to take into account the biocultural influences on physiology and cultural repertoires of both men and women.32
Individuals become decontextualized in time and space. When historical
and social context is reintegrated into the analysis, Tamzene’s actions are
exactly what we would expect from an ideal Victorian wife and mother.
The duality of gender roles in the first half of the nineteenth century
became codified in public discourse and reified in separate spheres.
Civility, education, and morality were seen as intrinsically female concerns to be nurtured by wives and mothers within the home.33 The
domestic sphere became an idealized haven from corrupt forces of the
i n t roduc t ion7
Kinship Diagram for Donner Families
and Others Encamped at Alder Creek
continued on facing page
Tamzene
Donner
Age 45
George
Donner
Age 60/62
Mary
Blue
Frances Georgia Eliza
Elitha Leanna
Donner Donner Donner Donner Donner
Age 6
Age 4 Age 3 Age 14 Age 11
Jean
Joseph Dorothea
Baptiste Reinhardt Wolfinger
Trudeau (teamster Age 29
(employee)
with
Age 16 Wolfinger)
Age 30
Legend
Male (Died in the Donner Party)
Female (Died in the Donner Party)
Male (Survived the Donner Party)
Female (Survived the Donner Party)
Male, divorced (not in the Donner Party)
Female, divorced (not in the Donner Party)
Figure I.1. Kinship diagram for the Donner family and others camped
at Alder Creek. Each individual’s age as of November 1, 1846, is given.
Courtesy of Joseph Stoll.
8i n t roduc t ion
continued from facing page
Jacob
Donner
Age 56
Elizabeth
Donner
Age 40
James
Hook
George Jr. Mary
Isaac
Lewis Samuel Solomon William
Donner Donner Donner Donner Donner
Hook
Hook
Age 10 Age 7 Age 6
Age 4 Age 1
Age 14 Age 12
James
Samuel
Noah
Smith
Shoemaker James
(Reed
(teamster) (teamster)
teamster,
Age 25
Age 16
worked
for
James
Reed)
Age 25
Notes: Ages are based on each individual’s age as of November 1,
NOTES:
1846.
Charles
Burger
andCharley
JohnBurger
Denton
(teamster,
28)
Ages here are based
on each
individual’s
age as(teamster,
of November 30)
1, 1846;
(teamster,
30) and John
Denton (teamster, 28)
worked for
for the
Donner
families,
but were but
not camped
at
Alder
Creek; George
DonnerCreek.
also
worked
the
Donner
families,
were
not
camped
at
Alder
had a third wife, Susannah Holloway, with whom he had six children, none of whom traveled west with him;
Jacob Donner was believed
have had a wife
child whoby
died
married
Elizabeth. The
second relief
GeorgetoDonner’s
sixand
children
hisbefore
firsthewife,
Susannah
Holloway,
left two rescue party members (Charles Cady and Nicholas Clark) with the Donners at Alder Creek in late February
west
withstayed
him.forJacob
Donner
believed
to have
had
1847; Cady lived indid
campnot
for atravel
few days
and Clark
approximately
twowas
weeks;
Tamzene Donner
died
at
the Donner Lake camp;
William
andwho
Isaac Donner
died while
rescued.
a wife
andHook
child
died before
hebeing
married
Elizabeth. The Second
Relief left two rescue party members (Charles Cady and Nicholas
Clark) with the Donners at Alder Creek in late February 1847; Cady
lived in camp for a few days, and Clark stayed for approximately two
weeks. Tamzene Donner died at the Donner Lake camp. William
Hook and Isaac Donner died while being rescued. Thanks to Kristin
Johnson for providing these details.
i n t roduc t ion9
market, as well as a sanctuary for companionate marriage. Middle-class
femininity and masculinity came to be defined within, and projected
from, the household.34 The dualities of separate spheres—male/female,
market/home, public/private—were not, however, neatly bounded. The
separation of spheres, as Janet Wolff argues, “does not presuppose either
a ready-formed or static ‘middle-class,’ or a straightforward economic
and ideological ‘separation of spheres.’ Indeed, this separation was constantly and multiply produced (and counteracted) in a variety of sites.”35
Yet as fluid as the sites may be, “[p]hysically, the separation of spheres was
marked, as well as constructed, by both geography and architecture.”36
The idealized Victorian home, for example, became more compartmentalized, with walls segregating activities and the individuals within.37
Parlors were set aside to welcome the public, while other spaces were kept
far from the gaze of the outside world. Socio-sexual norms were encoded
in these structures and the bodies who occupied them.38 The Reeds’ socalled Pioneer Palace wagon, with its distinct sitting and sleeping areas,
was an attempt to transport such boundaries into the wilderness.39
On the trail, travelers negotiated new physical and social landscapes,
though the activities and the space they occupied remained gendered.
Women, in general, were responsible for the hearth and meals, care of
the children, and bringing an air of civility to the mobile community.
Men performed the heavy labor of the daily traverse, negotiated goods
and supplies, and maintained defense of livestock and family.40 Leisure time for bourgeois women circulated around literary activities (for
example, keeping diaries, reading, writing letters, sketching, sewing, and
collecting botanical specimens), while the men used big game hunting to
negotiate rank and solidify fraternal bonds.41
Victorian domesticity was not a rigid social structure, however, especially when pioneers ventured into new and unfamiliar areas. In fact,
Igor Kopytoff reminds us that “differences in social behavior that might
have been disguised or unacceptable within a cultural ‘core’ could be
exposed . . . and even permissible on the frontier.”42 Therefore, the case
of the Donner Party provides an opportunity to understand the power
and flexibility of ideology when a group of people find themselves in
desperate circumstances outside genteel society. In addition to historical
accounts, the organization of space, activities, and material remains at
the extant camp sites provides some insight.
There were, indeed, significant differences between the two camps and
10i n t roduc t ion
the physical and social conditions created by the built environment—or
lack thereof. At Donner Lake, the Breen, Graves, Keseberg, Murphy, and
Reed families wintered in three cabins and adjacent lean-tos. At Alder
Creek, in contrast, the Donner families and the teamsters had to hastily
erect makeshift shelters, which provided little protection to those within.
Georgia Donner, who was four at the time, recalled the dreadful conditions she and her family suffered at Alder Creek: “Some days we could
not keep a fire, and many times during both days and nights, snow was
shoveled from off of our tent and from around it so that we might not be
buried alive. Mother remarked one day that it had been two weeks [since]
our beds and clothing upon our bodies had been wet.”43 Her father’s tent
was reportedly so crowded at times that those who took shelter inside
during storms had to lie in bed to make room for everyone (see chapter 1).
Thus, those living at Alder Creek were also subject to another exposure—the gaze of others. Life in an enclosed cabin, as opposed to activities in an ephemeral shelter, likely involved a different spatial context
within which social interactions occurred and could be observed. While
this may seem to be a rather mundane point, we might expect privacy to
influence decisions about when to resort to cannibalism, how to process
the bodies, and whom to expose to such a spectacle (see chapter 7). Each
single-room cabin at the Lake Camp, for example, had a cooking hearth
and various activity areas where daily life was acted out within the confines of relatively private domestic space.44 At Alder Creek, in contrast, the
cooking hearth was more exposed,45 allowing others to observe activities
occurring in that sphere. Daughter Eliza reported that the George Donner tent, where the family slept, was connected to a kitchen area made of
brush and tree limbs. The recollections of Frances Donner (six years old
at the time) suggest that this kitchen area served as the domain of the
matriarch of their camp:46 “[H]er mother [Tamzene] lived—presumably
not all the time—in the kitchen annex to prevent the hungry from getting
into the kettle at night” (see chapter 1).
While Tamzene monitored the “domestic” domain, sixteen-year-old
John Baptiste Trudeau performed much of the men’s work outdoors. In
addition to chopping wood, he shot the surviving animals and marked
the position of their bodies. Later, he would struggle to find the bodies
of livestock and humans whose corpses had became obscured by snowdrifts (see chapter 1). Though inside/outside and domestic/public dichotomies were undoubtedly fluid during entrapment, occupants at Alder
i n t roduc t ion1 1
Creek seemed to clearly distinguish between those spaces used by the
living and those reserved for the dead.
These little dramas of daily life are rarely touched on in master narratives of the Donner saga. Yet within these dramas were individuals who
carried the mores and modalities of action structured within a historical context. There was no single “society” (or “party,” for that matter);
instead, the camps were inhabited by persons whose class, gender, age,
and life histories served to filter the cultural materials that they were
exposed to and might act upon. “All human beings,” anthropologist Lars
Rodseth emphasizes, “are biographical individuals in this sense, as any
one person embodies and reproduces just a fraction of the cultural materials (symbols, values, and so on) carried by the entire population.”47
Thus, when members of the Donner Party found themselves trapped in
the Sierra Nevada, individuals were acting on variable Victorian repertoires that mitigated reactions to novel circumstances. These were not
isolated persons left to act out their cultural schemas like rats in a maze,
but social beings whose actions and reactions were influenced, learned,
or modified in the presence of others.48
Before putting a trowel to soil, then, simply disaggregating the “Donner Party” socially and spatially provides new insights into and expectations from the historical and archaeological record. By bringing these
details into the analytical frame, we can direct our attention toward the
differences between the two camp sites and the individuals harbored
therein. Moreover, this distinction allows us to move away from a simple narrative that compresses variation, toward one in which we might
understand the range of experiences that men, women, and children had
in such desperate, and potentially disparate, circumstances. How such
experiences at Alder Creek might manifest in the material record is what
we turn to next.
Vital Matter
An archaeological site is not simply a snapshot in time waiting to be
interpreted and narrated, but a historically contingent place that was,
and remains, in a state of flux.49 The dynamic quality of an archaeological site—a place that is always in the process of becoming—is precisely what allows for alternative interpretations of an event. Indigenous
peoples, explorers, and other overlanders traveled through the Sierra
1 2i n t roduc t ion
Nevada well before the Donners marked the landscape with their camp.
Even during the time of their entrapment, people came and went; some
traveled between the Lake Camp and Alder Creek, others died, and a
lucky few were rescued. The local Washoe residents, souvenir seekers,
and curious overlanders would alter the setting, as would the California State Parks, the U.S. Forest Service, the descendants of the emigrant
party, and archaeologists. And these are just the human agents.50
For analytical purposes, however, we must freeze the ebb and flow
to capture specific moments in time. While we acknowledge that such
images artificially bind the landscape, we recognize the need to stop the
action, examine the material record, and look for continuity and disjunction between and across sites. To emphasize the dynamic rather than
static qualities of the site (and those who inhabited it), we have organized
this book into four sections—“Locating,” “Lingering,” “Consuming,”
and “Narrating”—with each part containing chapters that share similar
subject matter or sources of analysis.
Because the historical setting preceded, constrained, and was altered
by the Donner event, we begin by locating the saga within a detailed context of overland migration and Jacksonian America. Part 1, “Locating,”
consists of two chapters by historian Kristin Johnson, who details the
context of the heretofore underrepresented Alder Creek Camp, including an examination of post–Donner Party events and influences on what
remained at both mountain camps. Johnson’s meticulous history of the
Alder Creek Camp is a significant accomplishment given the paucity of
descriptions relative to the Donner Lake Camp. She also initiates the discussion (which is continued throughout this book) of communication
between Alder Creek and the Lake Camp. Juxtaposing the known context of the Donner Lake site against that of the more enigmatic Alder
Creek site is a comparative approach elaborated on by other contributors
to this volume (see especially chapters 4, 5, and 7).
Once the historical context of our case is in place, we turn to locating
the enigmatic Alder Creek Camp itself. We certainly were not the first
to try. In chapters 3 and 4, respectively, archaeologists Donald Hardesty
and Kelly Dixon detail the previous expeditions and explorations, as
well as the often-conflicting conclusions. Drawing on consensus in the
historical records as well as archaeological testing, Hardesty and Dixon
are able to triangulate the position of at least one encampment in the
“meadow.”51 Ultimately, the characteristics, dating, and unique qualities
i n t roduc t ion13
of the artifact assemblage at Alder Creek allowed us to be confident that
we had located a portion of the Donner family encampment.
We then pause to present the archaeological findings from the excavation in part 2, titled “Lingering.” The material and spatial records are
where we would expect to see continuity or rupture that would reflect
behavioral shifts. The dynamic qualities of the site are here, again, inescapable. People began collecting relics from the Alder Creek encampments when the fourth rescue/scavenging party arrived in April 1847 (see
chapters 2 and 10). Even more intriguing is that the Washoe people went
to the deserted camps to “investigate and cleanse the area of any spirits”
that might remain lingering around the encampments (see chapter 9).
The Washoes purportedly buried anything they found (whether a teacup
or a piece of cloth) away from the site so that the items, along with the
spirits of the dead, would remain carefully laid to rest.
Despite these activities, some remnants left behind by the snowbound emigrants have been identified. Although the artifacts from the
Alder Creek site are relatively sparse—slivers of glass, bits of ceramic
plates and tea sets, buttons from overcoats, and thousands of small
bone fragments—further study allowed the layout of one portion of the
site to be reconstructed and interpreted through the lens of normalcy
and adaptation. For example, archaeologist Julie Schablitsky points out
in chapter 5 that the archaeological record can be integrated with historical accounts to reconstruct activity areas and capture a sense of the
spatial arrangement of the Donner families’ encampment. The archaeological record is invaluable at this juncture because there are no written accounts that specify the layout of the tent camp at Alder Creek.
Schablitsky’s findings were subsequently used to develop artistic renditions, another interesting and material form of historical narrative.
Schablitsky also compares the layout of the Donner family camp with
the Murphy Cabin at Donner Lake to investigate differences between
public and private space in the archaeological record. She questions
whether and how the Donners used the location of the hearth and associated shelter as a more public sphere for socializing versus its use as a
personal space (for example, sleeping) like that of the Murphy Cabin.
The comparative lens between entrapment locales is widened further
as Dixon evaluates the Alder Creek artifact assemblage in relation to
other overland camps and other settlements in the area. What is fascinating about this comparison is how similar in some respects, and how
1 4i n t roduc t ion
different in others, are the material records of the Donner encampments.
Using this comparison, Dixon elaborates on landscape learning and the
experience of colonization. She also argues that it is important to go
beyond the details of physiological adjustments to examine normalcy as
evidence of behavioral adaptation.52
The third part of this book we have entitled “Consuming,” to mark not
only a period when foodstuffs were used up but also the act of eating;
such an act is particularly evocative in this case. We begin by presenting
a comprehensive investigation of the bone fragments, including analyses
of histology and processing scars. This research was challenging because
the bone collection from Alder Creek was extremely fragmentary as a
result of butchering, burning, and other postdepositional processes. Yet
the condition of the bone is part of the dynamic quality of the site that
reflects the actions of those who occupied or encountered it. With this
quality in mind, as we turn to the biological tissue recovered at the site,
we are, in a sense, elaborating on the dynamic nature of the living body
as well as the body as material culture.53
The microstructure of bone, for example, is examined by bioarchaeologists Gwen Robbins Schug and Kelsey Gray (with contributions by
Guy Tasa, Ryne Danielson, and Matt Irish) to identify the animal species
in the Alder Creek assemblage (chapter 6). Robbins Schug and her colleagues evaluate the ability to differentiate between human and nonhuman bone, adult and subadult age groups, and the impact of postmortem
events on once-living tissue. What would seem to be a rather static, factbased scientific inquiry is actually an assessment of the dynamic processes in an organism’s life history. Such histories require us to consider
how genes interact with a social and physical environment to construct
a biological organism. Yet this construction is not complete at birth,
because the living being continues to emerge and change across the life
course. Even after death, the organism’s structure can be further manipulated by the living. The dead might be washed, wrapped, and buried, or
they might be skinned, butchered, and consumed. Once discarded (and
possibly forgotten), the tissue continues to be altered by the ebb and flow
of the local environment.
Although Robbins Schug and her colleagues are unable to unequivocally confirm the presence of human tissue in the Alder Creek bone
assemblage, the human presence is all too apparent in the postmortem alteration of the bony tissue.54 This issue is addressed by another
i n t roduc t ion15
bioarchaeologist, Shannon Novak, in a chapter that details the processing and butchering scars on bone fragments and elaborates on these
findings with an experimental cooking study (chapter 7). Her research
raises questions about the ability to recognize behavioral signatures of
starvation diets and cannibalism across time and space. In particular, she considers who would have been making decisions about what
might be considered food, how and where the food was prepared, and
how the predominant gaze of children might have influenced decisions
and acts at the site. She concludes that while there may be patterns in
the material record that transcend the event, contextual variables such
as gender, social setting, and Victorian norms influenced behavior,
even under the most dire of circumstances.
In chapter 8, anthropologists G. Richard Scott and Sean McMurry
examine starvation cannibalism from a more macro perspective, one that
considers the Donner saga in relation to other bioarchaeological studies
of human cannibalism (also known as anthropophagy). In addition to
pointing out the ways in which the Alder Creek site’s historical context
and bone assemblage can complement the diverse array of evidence that
has been associated with this behavior—from the hominid fossil record
to ethnographic accounts—Scott and McMurry argue that the Donner
Party events represent not an “aberration but a fully anticipated result of
individuals put under dire and life-threatening stress.” When considered
in this broader context, the Donner Party’s ordeal is merely a single event
that pushed the limits of dietary stress and nineteenth-century taboos.
Yet the tension between human biology and cultural values is what made
the event such a resilient morality tale. It is ironic that the archaeological
traces are so minute, especially when juxtaposed against the size of one
of the American West’s most infamous tales.
The fourth and final part, “Narrating,” provides alternative perspectives on the Donner story, beginning with an ethnography and ethnohistory of the Washoe people by Jo Ann Nevers and Penny Rucks (with
contributions by Lana Hicks, Steven James, and Melba Rakow). The
Donner Party’s snowbound period, October 1846 to April 1847, took
place in Washoe territory, specifically, in the homelands of the northern
Washoe (wel mel ti) people. While the Donner Party tragedy is a quintessential case study of settlers navigating an unfamiliar landscape, chapter
9, written by Washoe tribal members and an ethnographer, outlines the
ways in which the wel mel ti people were quite familiar with the weather
16i n t roduc t ion
and environment of the region. The Washoes had long since adapted to
the astonishing range of life zones that proved daunting to the overland
emigrants.
Jo Ann Nevers and Penny Rucks also include contact stories that
have been told among the wel mel ti but have not been used by historians as primary sources because, as one of the informants observed, “no
one interviewed our family or other Washoes to find out if they knew
anything about the Donner Party.” Descriptions of such encounters are
expected to spark discussions related to cultural encounters and nineteenth-century westward migration and, when combined with this volume’s other historical descriptions, provide a mosaic of recollections and
interpretations to foster a multivocal perspective of the Donner Party’s
ordeal.
Media accounts, in particular, played a significant role in the creation
of the Donner Party chronicle. In chapter 10, historians Will Bagley and
Kristin Johnson provide an analysis of the media and personal recollections that fueled the construction of collective memory and memory
politics in the aftermath of the Donner Party saga. They use previously
unknown primary sources, particularly those of Latter-day Saints and
forty-niners, to glean “contemporary perspectives on the calamity.” The
diverse array of narratives formed by groups and individuals, each having distinct perspectives and disparate motives, would congeal over time
to form a national narrative of the Donner Party and come to influence
interpretations of western trails history.
In “Concluding Thoughts,” chapter 11, we too are proposing alternative
narratives that complicate the story, give pause, and rouse inquiry into
a historical case that was considered closed. Our intent, however, is not
to replace one narrative with another. We recognize the value of legends
and their ability to animate the past, teach lessons, and enrich our lives.55
We also appreciate the political repercussions of interpreting, teaching,
and narrating history. As Bagley and Johnson point out in chapter 10,
“The idiosyncratic nature of our public memory reflects dreams and
fears that run deep in the American psyche.”
In this volume, myth and memory collide with scientific methods
that are woven into a critical analysis of historical records. Drawing on
historical sources, artifacts and osseous materials, discussions of survival cannibalism, and ethnographic accounts, the following chapters
are dedicated to illuminating details about life and death at the Alder
i n t roduc t ion17
Creek Camp. Such an undertaking required the expertise of historians,
archaeologists, bioarchaeologists, ethnographers, descendants, and collaborators. By the time readers reach the end of this volume, we expect
that they will have a deeper understanding not only of what happened at
the Alder Creek Camp during the winter of 1846–47 but also of how an
interdisciplinary approach can use multiple sources to link site-specific
information with broad cultural events.
18i n t roduc t ion
Table I.1. Families and emigrants associated with the Donner Lake Camp
Name
Antonio
Breen, Edward
Breen, Isabelle
Breen, James F.
Breen, John
Breen, Margaret
Age Died/SurvivedRole/Relationship
[23]Dieda
13 Survivedb
11 mos. Survivedc
5 Survivedc
14 Survivedc
[40] Survivedc
Breen, Patrick
[51]
Breen, Patrick, Jr.
9
Breen, Peter
3
Breen, Simon P.
7
Burger, Charles “Charley” [30]
Denton, John
[28]
Dolan, Patrick
35/40
Eddy, Eleanor
[25]
Eddy, James
[3]
Eddy, Margaret
[1]
Eddy, William H.
29
Survivedc
Survivedc
Survivedc
Survivedb
Died
Diedb
Died a
Died
Died
Died
Survived a
Elliott, Milford “Milt”
Fosdick, Jay
Fosdick, Sarah
Foster, George
Foster, Sarah A. C.
Foster, William M.
Graves, Eleanor
Graves, Elizabeth
Graves, Elizabeth
Graves, Franklin W.
[28]
[23]
21
2
19
31
14
46
[1]
[57]
Died
Dieda
Survived a
Died
Survived a
Survived a
Survivedb
Died c
Survived c
Died a
[5]
[7]
12
20
8
17
Diedc
Survivedc
Survivedb
Survived a
Survivedc
Survivedb
Graves, Franklin W., Jr.
Graves, Jonathan
Graves, Lovina
Graves, Mary Ann
Graves, Nancy
Graves, William C.
Teamster (?) for the Donners
Son of Patrick Breen
Daughter of Patrick Breen
Son of Patrick Breen
Son of Patrick Breen
Wife of Patrick Breen, born in
Ireland
Farmer from Iowa, born in Ireland
Son of Patrick Breen
Son of Patrick Breen
Son of Patrick Breen
Teamster for the Donners
Teamster for the Donners
Farmer from Iowa, born in Ireland
Wife of William Eddy
Son of William Eddy
Daughter of William Eddy
Carriage maker from Belleville,
Illinois
Teamster for the Reeds
Son-in-law of Franklin Graves
Daughter of Franklin Graves
Grandson of Levinah Murphy
Daughter of Levinah Murphy
Son-in-law of Levinah Murphy
Daughter of Franklin Graves
Wife of Franklin Graves
Daughter of Franklin Graves
Farmer from Marshall County,
Illinois
Son of Franklin Graves
Son of Franklin Graves
Daughter of Franklin Graves
Daughter of Franklin Graves
Daughter of Franklin Graves
Son of Franklin Graves (cont.)
i n t roduc t ion19
Table I.1. Families and emigrants associated with the Donner Lake Camp (cont.)
Name
Age Died/SurvivedRole/Relationship
Halloran, Luke
[25] Died on trail Storekeeper from St. Joseph,
Missouri; joined Donners en route
Hardcoop, Mr.
[60] Died on trail Belgian traveling with Keseberg
Herron, Walter
[27] Survivedd
Teamster for the Reeds
Keseberg, Ada
[2] Diedb
Daughter of Louis Keseberg
b
Keseberg, Philippine
23 Survived Wife of Louis Keseberg, Germanspeaking emigrant h
Keseberg, Louis
32 Survived
Brewer from Cincinnati, Germanspeaking emigrant h
Keseberg, Louis, Jr.
2 mos. Died
Son of Louis Keseberg, born en
route
Keyes, Sarah
[70] Died on trail Mother-in-law of James F. Reed
Luis
[?]Died a
Indian vaquero from Sutter’s Fort
a
McCutchan, Amanda
[25] Survived Wife of William McCutchan
McCutchan, Harriet
[1] Died
Daughter of William McCutchan
McCutchan, William
[30] Survivedd
Farmer from Missouri
Murphy, John Landrum
16 Died
Son of Levinah Murphy
a
Murphy, Lemuel B.
13 Died Son of Levinah Murphy
Murphy, Levinah W.
36 Died
Widow from Tennessee
Murphy, Mary M.
14 Survivedb
Daughter of Levinah Murphy
Murphy, Simon P.
8 Survivede
Son of Levinah Murphy
b
Murphy, William G.
10 Survived Son of Levinah Murphy
Pike, Catherine
[1] Died
Granddaughter of Levinah Murphy
Pike, Harriet F.
18 Survived a
Daughter of Levinah Murphy
Pike, Naomi L.
2 Survivedb
Granddaughter of Levinah Murphy
Pike, William
[32] Died on trail Son-in-law of Levinah Murphy
Reed, James F.
45 Survivedd
Businessman from Springfield,
Illinois (cont.)
2 0i n t roduc t ion
Table I.1. Families and emigrants associated with the Donner Lake Camp (cont.)
Name
Reed, James F., Jr.
Reed, Margret W.
Reed, Patty
Reed, Thomas K.
Reed, Virginia E.B.
Salvador
Snyder, John
Spitzer, Augustus
Stanton, Charles T.
Williams, Baylis
Williams, Eliza
Age Died/SurvivedRole/Relationship
5 Survivedb
32 Survivedb
8 Survived f
3 Survivedf
13 Survivedb
[?]Died a
[25] Died on trail
[30] Died
35 Died a
[25] Died
[31] Survivedb
Son of James F. Reed
Wife of James F. Reed
Daughter of James F. Reed
Son of James F. Reed
Stepdaughter of James F. Reed
Indian vaquero from Sutter’s Fort
Teamster for the Graveses
Teamster for the Donnersg
Traveling with the Donners
Hired man for the Reeds
Cook for the Reeds
Source: Data compiled by Kristin Johnson (see chapter 1).
Note: Names are listed in alphabetical order, and ages are as of November 1, 1846.
Brackets indicate that the age has been estimated.
a Part of the Forlorn Hope, the group of fifteen emigrants (nine men, five women, and
one thirteen-year-old boy) who set out on snowshoes to seek help.
b Taken out of the mountains with the First Relief.
c
Taken out of the mountains with the Second Relief.
d Walter Herron, William McCutchan, and James Reed, while part of the original
emigrant party, left the Donner party en route and were not trapped in the mountains.
e Taken out of the mountains with the Third Relief.
f
Started with First Relief but gave out and were taken back to live with the Breen family; they later left the mountains with the Second Relief.
g
Farnham’s account refers to Spitzer as a “hired driver” (Farnham, “From California,” 154), and W. C. Graves said he was “with the Donners” (Graves to McGlashan,
April 14, 1879: “Antonio, Burger, Spitzer & James, belonged with the Donners”).
h
These individuals are portrayed as Germans in much of the Donner Party literature.
Yet in 1847 there was no German state in the modern sense. Thus, these individuals
were German speakers but Prussian citizens.
i n t roduc t ion2 1
Table I.2. Families and emigrants associated with the Alder Creek Camp
Name
Age Died/SurvivedRole/Relationship
Donner, Elitha
14
Donner, Eliza P.
3
Donner, Elizabeth
[40]
Donner, Frances E.
6
Donner, George
60/62
Donner, George, Jr.
10
Donner, Georgia
4
Donner, Isaac
[6]
Donner, Jacob
[56]
Donner, Leanna
11
Donner, Lewis
[4]
Donner, Mary
7
Donner, Samuel
[1]
Donner, Tamzene
45
Hook, Solomon E.
14
Hook, William
[12]
James, Noah
[16]
Miller, Hiram O.
[30]
Reinhardt, Joseph
[30]
Shoemaker, Samuel
[25]
Smith, James
[25]
Trudeau, John Baptiste [16]
2 2i n t roduc t ion
Survived a
Survivedd
Died
Survivedd
Died
Survived a
Survivedd
Diedb
Died
Surviveda
Died
Survivedc
Died
Died
Survivedb
Diede
Survived a
Survived
Died
Died
Died
Survived
Daughter of George Donner
Daughter of George Donner
Wife of Jacob Donner
Daughter of George Donner
Farmer from Springfield, Illinois
Son of Jacob Donner
Daughter of George Donner
Son of Jacob Donner
Brother of George Donner
Daughter of George Donner
Son of Jacob Donner
Daughter of Jacob Donner
Son of Jacob Donner
Wife of George Donner
Stepson of Jacob Donner
Stepson of Jacob Donner
Teamster for the Donners
Teamster for the Donnersf
Associate of Wolfinger
Teamster for the Donners
Teamster for the Reeds
With the Donnersg (cont.)
Table I.2. Families and emigrants associated with the Alder Creek Camp (cont.)
Name
Age Died/SurvivedRole/Relationship
Wolfinger, Dorothea
[29]
Survived a
Wife of Mr. Wolfinger,
German-speaking emigrant
Wolfinger, Mr.
[?]
Died on trail Traveling with Keseberg, from
Cincinnati, German-speaking
emigrant
Source: Data compiled by Kristin Johnson (see chapter 1).
Note: Names are listed in alphabetical order, and ages are as of November 1, 1846;
brackets indicate that the age has been estimated.
aRescued by the First Relief.
bRescued by the Second Relief.
c
Taken out by the Second Relief, rescued by the Third Relief.
dRescued by the Third Relief.
eDied with the First Relief.
f
Hiram O. Miller was a teamster traveling with the Donners, but because he left on
July 2, 1846, he was never part of the ordeal or a resident of the Alder Creek Camp. He
did, however, return as a member of two rescue parties.
g
John Baptiste (or Jean-Baptiste) Trudeau is often listed as a drover or teamster;
however, there are no primary sources describing him as a teamster. Baptiste said that
George Donner took him on because he claimed to have “knowledge of the languages
and customs of the various Indian tribes through whose country we should have to
pass”; Houghton, Expedition, 34.
h
These individuals are portrayed as Germans in much of the Donner Party literature.
Yet in 1847 there was no German state in the modern sense. Thus, these individuals
were German speakers but Prussian citizens.
i n t roduc t ion23
Notes
The chapter epigraph is from Taçon, Identifying Sacred Landscapes.
1. See, for example, Schlissel, Women’s Diaries. Kristin Johnson’s research indicates
that even though Mrs. George Donner’s first name is spelled “Tamsen” in the Donner
Party literature, she spelled it “Tamzene,” which is a version of the name “Thomasine”
(for details, see http://www.xmission.com/~octa/DonnerParty/DonnerG.htm).
2. Faragher, Women and Men, 78; Novak, House of Mourning, 130.
3. For example, Bryant, What I Saw; McGlashan, History; Houghton, Expedition;
Stewart, Ordeal by Hunger; King, Winter of Entrapment; King and Steed, “John Baptiste Trudeaux”; Johnson, Unfortunate Emigrants. Misspellings and grammatical errors
found in original documents are preserved throughout this volume to uphold the character associated with primary sources related to the Donner story.
4. McGlashan, History; Hawkins and Madsen, Excavation; Hardesty, Archaeology.
5. This Donner employee’s name appears in several different forms. The earliest
example is a note from November 1846, signed “John Trudeau” but written in a hand
that closely resembles Jacob Donner’s (Reed Papers, document 399). Other early Donner
Party sources refer to him simply as “John Baptiste” or “Baptiste.” The phonetic spelling “Trudo” appears as his surname in several early California records, though in later
years numerous other versions appear. While the correct French version of his name
would have been “Jean-Baptiste Trudeau,” this form is not attested in the literature, so
we will use “John Baptiste Trudeau” throughout the rest of this volume. Kristin Johnson’s ongoing research provided the information for this note.
6. King and Steed, “John Baptiste Trudeaux,” 166–69.
7. See, for example, White, It’s Your Misfortune; Wiley, “Invented Lands/Discovered
Pasts”; Walton, “Arson, Social Control, and Popular Injustice.”
8. Though we have not explicitly used the term microhistory, we see our approach
in line with this manner of practice. In particular, we examine this event, not as an
isolated or encapsulated moment, but as part and parcel of larger processes of scales
and time. Moreover, like microhistorians, we use an “exploratory stance” that allows us
“to examine the event from many sides, exploring the multiple ways that different individuals perceived and reacted to an event.” Beaudry, “Stitching Women’s Lives,” 145. For
further discussion on microhistory, see Brooks, DeCorse, and Walton, Small Worlds.
9. Hardesty, Archaeology, 110–11.
10. German ethnicity must be distinguished, of course, from German citizenship.
The Kesebergs, as Ethan Rarick points out, were both German speakers and Prussian
citizens. Of course, in 1847, there was no German state in the modern sense (Rarick,
Desperate Passage, 52).
11. O’Laughlin, Irish Families, 13.
12. Johnson, Unfortunate Emigrants, 282.
13. Ignatiev, How the Irish, 148. The merger of Irish and Catholic identity has a complex political history; see Howe, What Hath God Wrought, 199–210. Public perceptions
of “Irish Catholics” were entangled with nativism movements in the eastern United
2 4i n t roduc t ion
States during the 1830s and 1840s. Such movements resulted not only from immigration but also from labor and class discord fueled by abolitionist tendencies (see Ignatiev,
How the Irish, 149–55).
14. For a discussion of the degenerative effects of the wilderness, see Valenčius, Health
of the Country.
15. Alta California gained independence from Spain in 1821, after the Mexican War of
Independence. Mexico lost control of the territory as a result of the Mexican-American
War (1846–48), which was taking place while the Donner Party was entrapped, with one
member of the group, James Frazier Reed, even going off to fight in the war while he
waited for his family to arrive.
16. Despite the reputation of Alta California, there was a movement dedicated to getting Americans to settle in California. Lansford Hastings’s Emigrants’ Guide to Oregon
and California (1845) was intended to make California appealing enough to convince
a large number of Americans to move there so they could help win California for the
United States (see chapter 2 herein for additional discussion).
17. For example, Tamzene Donner was described as “a perfect type of eastern lady,
kind, sociable, and exemplary, ever ready to assist neighbors, and even the stranger in
distress.” Mr. Frances to C. F. McGlashan, in McGlashan, History, 142–43.
18. The Victorian era covers the period of Queen Victoria’s reign, up to her death
(1837–1901). For a discussion of the American context, see Sellers, Market Revolution;
Wells, Origins.
19. See, for example, Stokes and Conway, Market Revolution in America; Praetzellis
and Praetzellis, “Mangling Symbols of Gentility.”
20. See, for example, Ames, “Meaning in Artifacts”; Grier, Culture and Comfort;
Mrozowski, Archaeology of Class.
21. Bushman, Refinement of America; Kelly, “Well Bred Country People.”
22. Faragher, Women and Men, 21.
23. Johnson, Unfortunate Emigrants, 266–67.
24. Johnson, Unfortunate Emigrants, 226n5; see also Mullen, Donner Party Chronicles, 54–57.
25. Mullen, Donner Party Chronicles, 152.
26. In his lecture entitled “The ‘Humbug,’ ” trail historian Don Buck has noted that
the Humboldt segment of the California Trail was so challenging that many wagon
trains lost social cohesion, which means the Donner Party was not unique in this
regard. Buck examined over three hundred emigrant diaries and summarized what
their authors wrote about the Humboldt stretch, describing the river, dust, heat and
cold, Indian encounters, and so forth and providing quotations from the diaries. Under
the subheading “Disintegration” (leaves 10–16), Buck discusses the dissolution of wagon
trains, abandoning of wagons, jettisoning of possessions, heaps of dead cattle, and so
on. He notes, “In reading emigrant accounts, the resounding refrain is how debilitating their travels became as they toiled the three hundred miles from one end of the
Humboldt to the other. The commonly held view is that the emigrants were demoralized and devastated by their later drive over the dreaded Forty Mile Desert to either the
i n t roduc t ion25
Truckee or Carson Rivers. What I discovered, however, is [that] their two to three week
trek along the Humboldt so wore them down that by the time they reached the Sink and
Forty Mile Desert, an alarmingly high percentage had disintegrated as viable traveling
groups” (leaf 11). The years that Buck examined (1849–52) were very different from 1846,
but undeniably the Humboldt was an arduous stretch of the trail throughout the midnineteenth century. A typescript of this lecture is in the Oregon-California Trails Association Manuscripts. Copy in Kristin Johnson’s manuscript collection; special thanks to
her for sharing the document.
27. Although there were twenty people in camp at the beginning of November 1846,
there ended up being a total of twenty-two people there later because the teamsters
James Smith and Noah James joined those at Alder Creek; see chapter 1.
28. Grayson, “Donner Party Deaths”; Grayson, “Differential Mortality.”
29. Grayson, “Differential Mortality,” 157–58.
30. Grayson, “Differential Mortality,” 156. Kristin Johnson (pers. comm., July 2010)
argues that George Donner may have had a strong constitution, for his father lived to
the age of ninety-two. In addition, because George was an invalid, he seems to have lain
in bed most of the time and was therefore expending minimal calories.
31. Grayson, “Differential Mortality,” 158.
32. Given the significance of such biological and cultural interaction, it is important
to remember that the physiology of women is constructed in a cultural context, where
inequality in access to food, medical care, social support, and so on influences the
amount of body fat women will achieve and maintain over the life course. For a discussion of the biocultural construction of the body in relation to sex and gender, see Sofaer,
Body as Material Culture; and Geller, “Identity and Difference.”
33. Gendered ideals in the Victorian worlds have been widely critiqued (e.g., Foucault,
History of Sexuality), and care must be taken to differentiate between the biological
body, the performed body, and the categorized body (see Geller, “Bodyscapes, Biology,
and Heteronormativity”; Hollimon, “Sex and Gender in Bioarchaeological Research”;
Beaudry, “Stitching Women’s Lives”). For further discussion, see, for example, Houghton, Victorian Frame of Mind; Smith-Rosenberg, Disorderly Conduct; and Stanley,
“Home Life.”
34. Tosh, Man’s Place.
35. Wolff, “Culture of Separate Spheres,” 118–19.
36. Wolff, “Culture of Separate Spheres,” 119.
37. See, for example, Calder, Victorian Home; Bushman, Refinement of America; and
Spain, Gendered Spaces.
38. Walker, “Home Making.”
39. For a discussion of practice theory and the historical and cultural significance of
bodily movements within social and built environments see Bourdieu, Outline; Giddens, Constitution of Society; and Shilling, Changing Bodies.
40. Hurtado, Intimate Frontiers, 27; for a discussion of patriarchy and the blame
directed at men, in particular, who were seen to have failed in their roles as patriarchs
and protectors of women and children, see also 62–63. Faragher, Women and Men.
2 6i n t roduc t ion
41. See Novak, House of Mourning, 141.
42. Kopytoff, “Internal African Frontier,” 12.
43. Stewart, Ordeal by Hunger, 259; see also chapter 1 herein.
44. For an illustration of activity areas identified during excavation of Murphy cabin,
see Hardesty, Archaeology, 40–41.
45. That is, the George and Jacob Donner camps were separate, but each likely had a
communal cooking area in each camp used by each family.
46. For example, King and Steed, “John Baptiste Trudeaux.”
47. Rodseth, “Historical Massacres,” Manuscript in review, Comparative Studies in
Society and History; see also Rodseth, “Distributive Models of Culture”; Ortner, “Power
and Projects.”
48. Lefebvre, Production of Space.
49. See, for example, Pred, “Place”; and Joyce and Lopiparo, “Doing Agency in
Archaeology.”
50. See Clifford, Routes.
51. See Wiggins, “Investigation of Emigrant Trails”; see also Hardesty, Archaeology,
58–59.
52. See, for example, Mäkinen, “Human Cold Exposure”; Steegman, “Human Cold
Adaptation”; and Gearheard, “Change in the Weather.”
53. See, for example, Robb, “Time and Biography”; and Sofaer, Body as Material Culture.
54. To complicate matters, when the Institute for Canine Forensics worked at the
Alder Creek site, their human remains detection dogs were called upon to help identify
possible locations of human remains. The dogs alerted at several areas in Alder Creek,
but no obvious human remains were found after ground truth excavations were placed
on the areas where the dogs alerted. However, one of these areas was the fire hearth.
A soil chemistry analysis is under way to determine whether the areas where the dogs
alerted have a soil chemical signature that is similar to the soil chemical signatures of
known burials.
55. See Dixon, “Sidling Up.”
i n t roduc t ion27