AMERICAN CHRONICLES about an archeological examination of the Donner Family Camp in California; discusses the search for evidence of cannibalism among the Donner Party… Writer tells about the work of archeologists Kelly Dixon and Julie Schablitsky who had been able to obtain DNA samples from items found on previous archeological sites. They wanted to see if DNA could be used to determine whether the members of the Donner Party resorted to cannibalism… Discusses the unreliable historical record of the Donner Party. Tells about a series of articles by Charles Fayette McGlashan in the Truckee Republican in 1879… Everything about the Donner Family Camp-even its location-has been disputed, and among the eleven survivors, the subject of cannibalism was especially contested… Writer describes the journey undertaken by the Donner family and a number of others from Illinois to California in 1846. The party received bad advice on a route through the Wasatch Mountains, sapping their reserves of food and energy. They then crossed the Great Salt Desert and, in October, entered the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Heavy snow forced the advance wagons to stop at a lake. The Donner Family were a day behind the advance group and stopped at the Alder Creek. The Donners decided to stay there for the winter. By November, some of the men they had hired began to die. In December, a group of snowshoers hiked to Sutter's Fort for help. A rescue party was sent. The first relief reached the Donners in February of 1847. Donner's two older daughters were taken back to the fort. Ten days later, a second relief party arrived and took the rest of the children, leaving only George and Tamsen Donner. George died in March and Tamsen left for the lake, where one of the other pioneers, Lewis Keseberg, had a cabin. The third relief arrived to find only Keseberg and accused him of murdering Tamsen… Discusses the difficulty of locating exactly where the Donner camp was and tells about the excavation of the site. 750 artifacts were found, including a slate used for lessons. Tells about the archeologists' attempts to read the impressions left in the slate. They also found 16,000 pieces of badly burned bone… They were unable to extract DNA from the bone fragments. Tells about the work of Guy Tasa, an expert in skeletal remains, who says that the bones show “nothing that definitely says that cannibalism occurred.”… Schablitsky says that the Donners were more effective at acquiring food than previously thought. She speculates that if cannibalism did occur, it was most likely in the few weeks between the departure of the first relief and Tamsen's abandonment of the site.