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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (July 22, 2004)
An independent newspaper www.dailyemerald.com The Bourne Supremacy opens Friday Page 7 Thursday, July 22, 2004 Since 1900 University of Oregon Eugene, Oregon Volume 106, Issue 10 UO researches Donner cannibalism Artifacts at the suspected Donner party site are studied for evidence of cannibalism BEN BROWN NEWS REPORTER The story of the Donner party is infamous and widely known. Eighty-one men, women and children pinned down by snow on the far side of the Sierra Nevada mountains starved and eventually resorted to cannibalism before the 40 survivors were rescued. However, State Museum of Anthropology Research Associate Julie Schablitsky and oste ologist Guy Tasaboth part-time University in structors, have found artifacts that might tell a different tale of that tragic winter in 1846. "It's a big story because of the cannibal ism, which has been sensationalized," said Schablitsky. "The real story is about survival." Earlier this summer, Schablitsky and a team of researchers from the University of Oregon and the University of Montana found a cooking hearth, bone fragments, broken china, jewelry and musket balls at the site at Alder Creek Camp in California's Tahoe National Forest. Schablitsky said these artifacts provide long-sought-after definitive proof that Alder Creek is where the Donner party spent the winter of 1846-47. The hearth is specifically important, she said, because it is evidence of long-term residence and not just an overnight stay by other pioneers or miners. The bone fragments will allow researchers to finally prove whether the pioneers resorted to cannibalism to stay alive during those long hungry months, Schablitsky said. Tasa said cursory examination of the bones reveals that they all come from large mammals, but at present he can not say what animals — oxen, deer or humans — they came from. "If we identify non-human bone, we can say they were hunting resources not consid ered before," Tasa said. Diaries from the camp have never re vealed whether the trapped pioneers hunt ed, but Schablitsky says new evidence indi cates they did. More than 50 musket balls were found near the hearth. Schablitsky said Please see CANNIBALISM, page 4 Erik R. Bishoff Online & Photo Editor Research Associate Julie Schablitsky displays a piece of lead shot found near the recently discovered Donner party hearth. Osteologist and archeologist Guy Tasa (background) will assist in the investigation of bone fragments found at the excavation site. STAR GAZERS Innovative telescope builder John Dobson, celebrated for helping popularize amateur astronomy, teaches on campus this summer Erik R. Bishoff Online & Photo Editor John Dobson, world-renowned astronomer and creator of the Dobsonian telescope mount, teaches summer classes on cosmology and telescope construction at the University. OMIE DRAWHORN NEWS REPORTER On Friday night John Dobson was out on the town, living it up in a way only John Dob son could. He stood outside of Prince Puck " lei's Ice Cream on the corner of East 19 th Street and Agate Street with a 12-inch-diameter telescope set up on the sidewalk, urging passersby to take a look, to see the universe they live in and to understand it. "It's not enough just to see it, you need to under stand what the hell you see," Dobson said. Dobson — a world-renowned astronomer, co founder of Sidewalk Astronomers and inventor of the Dobsonian telescope mount, which is used worldwide — has made it his mission to share his love and knowledge of astronomy with the rest of the world. Now he's brought this vision to the University. Dobson travels around the world, but is current ly living in Eugene teaching classes on telescope making and cosmology. Dobson currently teaches a 20-student, twice weekly class in telescope making. Under his instruc tion, students are building cardboard Newtonian telescopes, which are shaped like cannons. Most of the telescope lenses are between eight and 12 inches. Garth Eliassen, Dobson's host when he lived in Monmouth, said the telescopes are made out of "junk." The students use plywood for the base, cardboard for the tube and a binocular part for the telescope's eyepiece. The telescopes will be on display at the Science Factory Children's Museum and Planetarium at Please see TELESCOPE, page 3 Trade commission urged to censor Fox News The Federal Trade Commission will give 'little consideration' to claims Fox News is misleading MICHAEL A. BOOTH FREELANCE REPORTER Political-action committee MoveOn.org has blasted Fox News' slogan "Fair and Balanced" as "false and deceptive advertising," calling on the Fed eral Trade Commission to censor the news outlet under its authority to regulate commercial speech. MoveOn.org, which has more than two mil lion members, according to its Web site, recently promoted the documentary "Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism," and followed m the promotion with a petition that challenges Fox News' slogan as false advertising. The Web site claims Fox News is intentionally misleading the public by promoting a biased conservative message. Hie organization says the proof is in the documentary, in which former Fox News employees allege that channel execu tives hand down a politically conservative agen da and decide how to work it into a seemingly objective news piece. Cable television news channels are loosely reg ulated by the Federal Communications Com mission, not the FTC, but are only censored by the FCC in cases of defamation and obscenity. The FTC has a responsibility to regulate commercial speech but it is unprecedented to consider censorship of any news organization. Kyu Ho Youm, University School of Journal ism and Communication professor and Jonathan Marshall First Amendment Chair, said the petition has little legal merit and is likely "po litically and ideologically motivated." "I don't think the FTC will address this issue," Youm said. 'Most likely, they will dismiss it out of hand." In a statement to the Associated Press, Fox news spokeswoman Irena Briganti said, "While this is clearly a transparent publicity stunt, we recognize all forms of free speech and wish them well." The FTC investigates all complaints by the pub lic, but the commission will give the petition little serious consideration, according to a statement Please see LAWSUIT, page 3 Senators question committee authority The ASUO Student Senate summer session debates issue resolutions and documentation of minutes MEGHANN M. CUNIFF FREELANCE REPORTER The ASUO Student Senate debated July 15 whether it could assume the full senate's authority to pass resolutions, revealing di visions among summer-session senators over the role of the summer committee. The debate stemmed from an issue reso lution some senators wanted to refer to the Rules Committee and sparked a deeper discussion about problems in the way the Senate has operated this summer, includ ing the Senate's failure to provide the man dated documentation of meeting minutes to University officials. Summer-session Senate President Ro drigo Moreno-Villamar supported the pro posed resolution that criticized a Multicul tural Center employee's job evaluation that resulted in a "substandard" contract. However, summer-session Senate Vice President James George and Senator Kevin Day both heavily criticized the resolution, arguing that the Green Tape Notebook prohibits the summer-session Senate from passing resolutions. "We cannot pass this resolution because we're not the full Senate; we're a commit tee of the Senate," Day said, referring to Senate rule 10.2, which explicitly states "The proposed resolution shall be present ed to the full Senate at a regularly sched uled meeting." Rule 8.5 of the Green Tape Notebook calls for the Senate to make a summer committee, which Day said he in terprets to mean that the summer Senate is not, and cannot, act as the full Senate. If Day's interpretation is correct, the Senate violated its rules June 24 when it passed an is sue resolution in support of the Please see SENATE, page 3
