Is the new Netflix series accurate? – Deseret News

On Thursday morning, Netflix will air a new six-episode series of fictional history that includes Brigham Young and uses the Mountain Meadows Massacre as what the streamer calls “the inciting event that connects” the cast of “American Primeval.”

The series is largely fiction, according to New York Timesbut it centers around real events during the 1857 Utah War and includes real people such as Brigham Young, the governor of the Utah Territory and the president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

“I’m glad they say it’s fiction,” said Barbara Jones Brown, co-author of “Vengeance Is Mine: The Mountain Meadows Massacre and Its Aftermath.” “They’re just straight up saying, ‘Yeah, it’s historical fiction,’ and then of course that gives them license to do whatever they want.”

The Utah War was instigated by US President James Buchanan, who stripped President Young of his governorship and sent 2,500 troops to escort a new federally appointed territorial governor to Utah. President Young said he would accept the federal appointees but opposed military occupation of the territory, Jones Brown said.

President Young and the Latter-day Saints resisted in several ways. Work on the construction of the Salt Lake Temple ceased, and crews buried the foundation to hide it from the soldiers. President Young and others fled Salt Lake City. (Even the Deseret News moved to Fillmore, Utah, during 1857-58 because of the fighting.)

The war became known as “Buchanan’s Blunder” because it was a financial boondoggle for the United States. The government spent an astonishing $15 million to $20 million to keep as many as 3,500 soldiers at Camp Floyd, making it the nation’s largest garrison for a time. The camp closed in 1861 when the start of the civil war took precedence.

The story Netflix is ​​trying to tell

Several TV writers say Netflix is ​​trying to cash in on interest in “Yellowstone” and its spin-offs, which include “1883” and “1923.” These series tell violent stories of clashes between cultures and interests as the United States moved westward.

Director Peter Berg said he wanted to tell a story about how difficult life was in the American West in the mid-19th century.

“America was born through war and blood and death,” he told the Times. “And that’s just the reality. That’s just the way it seems to go with people.”

Berg and others involved in the production say the accuracy they were trying to portray relates to how difficult it was to survive under those circumstances and that they wanted to explore the violent side of humanity.

“I look forward to taking viewers into the most dynamic, intense and heart-pounding survival tale humanly possible,” he said per Netflix. “We’re going into the belly of the beast.”

Why are Latter-day Saints part of history?

The writers, director and producers use the Mountain Meadows Massacre at the center of their historical fiction. Some historians have called the Utah War a bloodless war because of the relatively few deaths outside of the massacre, Jones Brown said.

Latter-day Saint pioneers (commonly referred to as Mormon pioneers) began arriving in Utah in 1847. The United States acquired the area from Mexico the following year and established the Utah Territory in 1850. At the time, the territory included most of Nevada, much of western Colorado and a southwestern piece of Wyoming.

In 1857, the federal government and the territorial government disagreed. President Young decided to protect Utah from federal occupation. He encouraged Indians to raid emigrant cattle businesses, Jones Brown said. His strategy was to warn the federal government that Utahns would not protect the emigrants unless the army backed up.

“We found that several cattle companies were raided between September 7 and October 3, 1857, and in only one case did you have this mass murder,” Jones Brown said.

Some historians have blamed President Young for the massacre.

“Did Brigham Young order the massacre? We found no evidence of that,” Jones Brown said. “In fact, we found a lot of evidence that he didn’t order it.”

In the other cases, the robbers simply dispersed the cattle herds. But at Mountain Meadows Latter-day Saints and Paiutes exchanged gunfire with the emigrants, and some were killed. Some of the Latter-day Saints knew that they had been recognized. A local leader sent a letter to Brigham Young for advice, but local leaders finally made the decision to kill the Witnesses on September 11, 1857, two days before receiving President Young’s response – “Let them go in peace.”

What is the plot of ‘American Primeval?’

The official Netflix logline is this:

“Up is down, pain is everywhere, innocence and calm are losing the battle to hate and fear. Peace is the shrinking minority, and very few possess mercy – even fewer know compassion. There is no safe harbor in these brutal lands, and only one goal matters: survival. American Primeval is a fictionalized dramatization and examination of the violent collision between culture, religion and society as men and women fight and die to keep or control this land.”

Some of the characters include Jacob Pratt, a Latter-day Saint who leads a group from Illinois to Utah to escape violent persecution, and his wife, Abish. Taylor Kitsch stars as Isaac Reed, who reluctantly agrees to guide a vulnerable woman and her son across southern Utah.

“Beyond the spate of scalped men and arrow-riddled innocents, American Primeval aims to showcase a rawness of emotion that motivates each character…” one reviewer wrote.

Is the series historically accurate?

Jones Brown said she planned to stay up late to watch the first episode when Wednesday turned into Thursday.

“I’ve talked to my friend, Darren Perry, who is a direct descendant of some of the chiefs of the Shoshone people from that period, and we’re going to look it up and take notes. My approach is not to be critical of the series…but to be available to answer questions for people who are curious about what is historically accurate.

“We want to be able to say, ‘This is historically accurate and it’s fictionalized.'”

A television writer has said the series will portray President Young as “a man who will do anything to ensure the survival of his persecuted followers—including using his Mormon army, the Nauvoo Legion.”

A religious consultant for the show said it takes fictional license by shortening timelines and recreating Jim Bridger and Brigham Young.

What is the church’s official position on the massacre?

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints made a statement about Mountain Meadows in an essay on Gospel Topics published on its official website titled “Peace and Violence Among 19th-Century Latter-day Saints.”

“In recent years, the church has made a diligent effort to learn everything possible about the massacre,” the statement states. “In the early 2000s, historians in the Church History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints searched archives throughout the United States for historical records; every church record about the massacre was also opened for scrutiny. In the resulting book that was published by Oxford University Press in 2008, authors Ronald W. Walker, Richard E. Turley Jr. and Glen M. Leonard concluded that while Brigham Young’s preaching of outsiders contributed to George A. Smith and other leaders, President Young did not order the massacre a series of tragic decisions by local church leaders—who also held important civic and militia leadership roles in southern Utah—led to the massacre.”

Turley and Jones Brown co-wrote “Vengeance Is Mine” in 2023 to update the story.