As a child growing up in the United States, the Donner Party has always been a part of my education. I went through the initial horror when I learned that they ate each other. As the years passed, I started to feel real empathy for them, then I decided, "Heck, they were dead, why not eat their bodies?"
Little did I know just how messed up this whole situation was.
Where the Donner Party became stranded in heavy winter snows was land occupied by the Washoe Native American tribe. There is much documentation that the Washoe watched the Donner Party, were aware they were starving, and (here's the frightening part) made numerous attempts to provide the Donner Party with food. What did the Donner Party do? Shoot at them. Ignore the food they threw across to them. They even killed one of the Washoe.
When I told my best friend all of this, her response? "The Donner Party were just really people persons."
Buh-duh-dum.
No comments:
Post a Comment