by Sharon Lindbloom
17 January 2025

We had just watched a particularly brutal scene from Netflix’s new historical fiction series, American Primeval. On the screen, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints attacked and killed an entire U.S. Army camp in 1850s Utah Territory. My husband turned to me and asked, “Did that really happen?” I was beginning to sound like a broken record as I answered, “No.” That was my answer nearly every time my husband asked — because American Primeval is much more “fiction” than “historical.”

Currently #1 on Netflix, this six-part series ostensibly depicts the often-violent settling of the American west, choosing the 1857-58 Utah War as its context. According to author David Roberts,

“The Utah War culminated a decade of rising hostility between Mormons and the federal government over issues ranging from governance and land ownership to plural marriage and Indian affairs, during which both Mormons and non-Mormons endured violence and privation.” (Smithsonian Magazine, “The Brink of War,” June 2008)

The Utah War ended diplomatically; no armed battles took place between the U.S. Army and the people of Utah. American Primeval’s surprise attack — Mormons slaughtering a whole company of U.S. soldiers — never happened.

The series is pretty heavy-handed in the way it portrays Mormons, nearly always presenting them as conniving, murdering, threatening, or out-of-their-minds. In fact, with just a few exceptions, all the characters in American Primeval, LDS or not, are terribly unsavory. Director Peter Berg explained that in making the series he wanted to explore “man’s inherently violent nature” pertaining to “the origin story of America.” Thus, the series depicts a Wild West where it seems that nobody places any value on human life. 

Latter-day Saints, of course, are not happy with the way American Primeval portrays Mormon history and the early leaders of the church, rightfully calling out inaccuracies and the series’ perpetuation of the stereotype that “Mormons are violent.” Some take issue with the way the Mountain Meadows Massacre is portrayed, as evident in these examples found on Facebook: 

“This was a brutal ugly event in the history of our church. We can’t gloss over it, or make excuses. Innocent people were murdered, and they tried to cover it up. But like all Hollywood movies they take it and make it more dramatic and inflated, just to sell.” (Christina)

“It makes me sick the way people are blowing up things that are not true” (Marilyn)

“The issue that I have is that the history is not even close to being correct. It involves the mountain Meadow massacre. Basically, [what really happened is] a bunch of southern Utah latter-day Saints acted on some false rumors that some pioneer settlers who were passing through. We’re going to attack them. So they dressed up like Native Americans and attacked the settlers. The man in charge of the attack was punished and sentenced to death. However, in this miniseries, [they get many things wrong] … We all know that our church is run by humans not perfect and there’s some crazy things in the history of our church. If you’re gonna make accusations, at least get the history, right.” (Bekah)

What’s interesting about this is that the depiction of the historical event known as the Mountain Meadows Massacre is surprisingly toned-down in American Primeval, significantly softened from its savage historical truths. The series certainly retains the brutality of the massacre, but it wholly ignores the treachery that is such a hallmark of the killings.

In American Primeval Mormon militiamen, along with some Native Americans, attack and murder an entire wagon train of emigrants who were passing through Utah Territory on their way to California. This is true, and certainly bad enough, but the actual historical event was much, much worse.

The historical records show that in the spring of 1857 a group of about forty men, thirty women, and seventy children began a trek from Arkansas to California in search of a better life. By September 7^th they had made it as far as today’s southern Utah and camped in a place known as Mountain Meadows. Here they intended to rest a bit before heading across the Mohave Desert.

That Monday morning the wagon train came under attack by a group of men then believed to be Indians. In fact, the attack was instigated by Mormons, many participants disguised to look like Indians. The emigrants circled their wagons and dug in for what became a multi-day siege. By Friday, September 11^th about half of the wagon train’s men had been killed. The emigrants were cut off from their water supply and their ammunition was running dangerously low. It was at this point that a white man approached the camp carrying a flag of truce.

The man was a prominent LDS leader, John D. Lee. After much debate among the emigrant men, Lee managed to convince them that their only hope for surviving the “Indian attack” was to surrender their weapons. Lee promised that he would control the Indians while LDS militiamen led the unarmed pioneers to safety. As I’ve written elsewhere, this is what happened:

“The Arkansas men gave up their arms, piling them into a wagon. Placing bedding on top of the guns, they then filled the wagon with their wounded and a few women and children. A second wagon held more wounded and children. Lee led the emigrants out of the camp: wagons first, women and children next, and finally, trailing far behind, the men; all were walking in single file. As the men marched, they were each given an armed Mormon militia escort.

“Half an hour into the march Major John Higbee fired a shot into the air and with a predetermined command, told his troops, ‘Do your duty!’  Immediately the Mormon guards turned and shot their charges. Not all the bullets found their marks, however, so the killing continued with knives. Some used their guns as clubs. Ahead on the trail, more Mormon men shot and killed the wounded in the wagons. Others, disguised as Indians, along with a few real American Indians, sprang out of the brush to slaughter the women and older children ([see Will Bagley,] Blood of the Prophets, pp. 5, 146-150).” (“In the Line of Duty: The Mountain Meadows Massacre”)

When all was said and done, of the 140 Arkansas emigrants, only 17 children under the age of seven remained alive. One of the Mormon attackers later revealed, “white men did most of the killing” (see Blood of the Prophets, 151).

The bodies of the slain were left to the animals. The wealth of the wagon train was pillaged and divided among the killers. The surviving children were placed with LDS families (who later billed the U.S. government for their care). And the blame for the massacre was laid entirely upon the Indians — a well-known deception within the Mormon community that was nevertheless, for decades, insisted upon as the truth.

American Primeval strips the Mountain Meadows Massacre of its heavy weight of betrayal. Of its calculated execution. Of its ruthless scapegoating of the Native American people with no concern for the consequences such a lie could bring upon them.  Contrary to what indignant Latter-day Saints seem to think, American Primeval did not sensationalize or inflate the Mountain Meadows Massacre; it actually downplayed the horrible truth. 

It’s puzzling why American Primeval, with its goal of portraying “man’s inherently violent nature,” would soften the massacre to such a degree. Rebecca Onion at Slate magazine suggests that a historically true depiction of the Mountain Meadows Massacre would be a “dicey choice” for filmmakers: “Nobody would want to watch the result because it would be too awful.” She may be right.

The Mountain Meadows Massacre was awful, probably more awful than any of us can imagine. The historical context in which it happened is complicated, but Latter-day Saints should not reduce it, as Facebook user Bekah (and others) did, to a rogue act by some Mormon men who were upset by false rumors. This atrocity was directly tied to early Mormonism, to its teachings, and to its leaders. 

The morning of the massacre John D. Lee told his militia,

“Brethren, we have been sent here to perform a duty. It is a duty we owe to God, and to our Church and people. The orders of those in authority are that all the emigrants must die…we must kill all of them, and our orders are to get them out by treachery if no other thing can be done to get them in our power.” (quoted in Blood of the Prophets, 143)

Before the day was done, Mountain Meadows had become a killing field scattered with the lifeless bodies of 120 men, women, and children. Honestly, I don’t think there’s anything Hollywood could do to artificially sensationalize such a crime. 

—

To see Sharon’s other news articles, click here.