The signature of starvation: A comparison of bone processing at a Chinese encampment in Montana and the donner party camp in California

Analysis of faunal remains from the historic China Gulch site in western Montana have shed light on behavioral strategies deployed by a marginalized population in a relatively undocumented historical context. China Gulch is a site where Chinese miners set up a temporary shelter after they were ostracized by white miners. Small bone fragments recovered at the site near a hearth suggest that the group underwent nutritional stress. The faunal remains were analyzed for evidence of butchering and processing following methods used to assess the bone recovered at the Donner Party Alder Creek campsite. The China Gulch findings were compared to the processing patterns identified at the Dormer site to further support skeletal evidence for a qualitative signature of starvation.