I never saw this before. It struck me how a tangential thing like this makes the perception of the event less of a myth.
It reminded me the other day of the radio news. There was a snippet of a 94 year old Ukrainian describing the current war. His take was, “When the Nazis were here, at least, they only slaughtered us in the daytime. The Russians do it day and night.” That gave a perspective I was not expecting.
The Donner Party events were just 156 years ago and while they seem ancient they were not, except in a personal frame of time. There may be someone who had a 90 year old tell him his memories of it, when he was 10, alive now.
There is lots more on the Donner Party tree stumps online.