Since its Netflix debut on January 9, American Primeval has been making headlines as one of the most brutal, gritty must-watch Western sagas ever to grace our television screens.
Taking place in 1857 Utah, the series follows fugitive mother Sara Roswell (Betty Gilpin) and her son Devin (Preston Mota) as they navigate the lawless terrain with their guide, Isaac Reed (Taylor Kitsch). It depicts the bloody, violent collision of early American settlers with indigenous tribes, cultists, religion, bounty hunters, the U.S. government, and ruthless ole Mother Nature herself.
In the wake of its success, questions abound as to whether the story is based on actual events. The answer, my dear friends, is yes, American Primeval is based on the true and deadly story of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. It also portrays real-life people. Director Peter Berg said he found inspiration for American Primeval in 2020 after reading a story about the Utah War.
“I read an article on something called the Mountain Meadows Massacre. [It] was something that interested me, and I started doing a lot of research on it.”
He then reached out to The Revenant scribe Mark L. Smith, and the two fleshed out his idea for an authentic, gritty, unforgettable Western set on the American frontier. Unbeknownst to him, the show’s foundation was already in place. While working on the 2015 film starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Smith read all about pioneer Jim Bridger (who features as a young boy in The Revenant) and in 2016 wrote a pilot based on the historical figure. Smith set American Primeval’s story at Fort Bridger with the famed mountain man 50 years after the events of The Revenant and as they say, the rest is history.
Let’s take a look at the event that sets our story in motion.
The Mountain Meadows Massacre
Created by Oscar-winning screenwriter Mark L. Smith and directed by Peter Berg (Painkiller), American Primeval explores the inherent ability of living creatures to become extremely violent in its retelling of the Mountain Meadows Massacre, the deadliest event inspired by the Utah War. While the show’s portrayal itself is unnerving, the reality is even worse.
In southern Utah on September 11, 1857, during a period of heightened tensions between the federal government and the Brigham Young-led Mormon theocracy in the Utah Territory, the Mountain Meadows Massacre went down. It is said to be the culmination of a decade of this tension and mutual suspicion between Mormon pioneers and the U.S. government. It’s also a conflict many refer to as the nation’s first civil war.
How the massacre started
See, when Brigham Young and his Mormon movement settled in the newly acquired U.S. land that came as a result of the Mexican-American War, the government instilled a big ole NO at their attempt to self-govern; instead, it established the Utah Territory and made Young its first governor. When the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints revealed its acceptance of and belief in polygamy, controversy about Mormon rule grew nationwide.
As a result, newly elected President James Buchanan started planning to oust Young. When national newspapers continued its coverage of the Mormons’ unconventional beliefs and theocratic territorial government, Buchanan declared Utah “in rebellion” and put in motion his plan by sending a large Army expedition. News of what Young saw as war coming spread through the movement, and he enforced martial law in August 1857.
Young had leverage, though. As emigrants moved westward, they combined their parties and formed large groups called wagon trains; moreover, their paths almost always took them through Utah territory. They'd be sitting ducks. And they were.
In their response to fearing they would—yet again—be ousted from their homes, the Mormons became suspicious of and aggressive with said wagon trains, and restricted trading to within their religious community. With the Utah Territory now on high alert, its Mormon residents readied themselves for all-out war.
When the Baker-Fancher wagon train, made up of about 40 emigrant families traveling from Arkansas to California, passed through the area, a group of Mormon militiamen decided to teach them a lesson after they grew frustrated with what they saw as insults to their marriages, homes, and way of life. The militiamen enlisted a group of local Paiute people to help them, then, both disguised as and aided by the Paiutes, they surrounded and attacked the traveling party. Over the course of five days, they brutally slaughtered more than 100 men, women, and children, sparing only 17 children aged six and under.
“We chose that because there was this intersection between a few different Native nations, the U.S. government, the Mormons, and the American citizens who felt they had the right to move through this area,” said executive producer Eric Newman via Netflix's Tudum. “The Mountain Meadows Massacre did happen … and it became, for our narrative purposes, an inciting incident of conflict for our cast of characters.”
Smith added that they aimed to depict a balanced retelling of history: “It was driven by the Nauvoo Legion, but we have to understand that they perceived it as a threat. They were coming in to defend their world. It is just another step—a very violent step—in the lengths that they went to.”
Instead of a siege spanning across five days, Smith and Berg decided to have the attack happen quickly, out of the blue, in the first episode. When the wagon train party stop to rest, a female emigrant is cut off in the middle of small talk by an arrow straight to the forehead. We then see a frantic Sara and Devin race to find cover under nearby wagons as arrows zip by and bodies fall all around them. It’s a heart-pounding scene to watch … truly visceral.
The massacre isn’t our only focus, though; it’s also the catalyst that kicks off our must-watch, super gritty Western. In its wake, we follow our ad hoc family as they struggle to survive, the quest of Mormon emigrant Jacob Pratt (Dane DeHaan, of ) to find his wife Abish (Saura Lightfoot-Leon, of The Agency), who’s been violently taken from him, the infamous war of words between Jim Bridger and Brigham Young (Kim Coates, of Sons of Anarchy), who is relentless in his efforts to buy Bridger’s fort and trading post in order to protect Mormon sovereignty over the territory, and the utter despair of an idealistic Army captain (Lucas Neff, of ) desperately trying (and failing) to quell the violence. There’s also the conflict between indigenous warrior Red Feather (Derek Hinkey) and his mother, a Shoshone tribe chief who only wants peace.
American Primeval characters based on real people
The most notorious American mountaineer to ever exist was Jim Bridger (Shea Whigham). The real-life pioneer found himself fixed between warring factions, including Natives, Mormons, and the U.S. government, after building Fort Bridger into a small city on the edge of civilization.
Brigham Young was an actual leader of the Mormon church who had his own army, the Nauvoo Legion. “For this type of story, it was very important that we stayed authentic,” said Smith, who further points out that all of the dialogue in Young’s sermons and speeches is taken directly from real sermons he gave.
As for the other main characters - Sara, Devin, and Isaac - they are all fictional and were created for the Netflix series.
Primeval also introduces us to Wild Bill Hickman (Alex Breaux), who was a notorious lawman and a member of the Nauvoo Legion. Winter Bird (Irene Bedard), the Shoshone tribal chief in the show, is a fictional person based on a real-life chief who was purported to be a lesbian with multiple wives. James Wolsey (Joe Tippett), Nauvoo Legion officer in the show, is inspired by a man who was actually executed for his role in the Mountain Meadows Massacre, according to Eric Newman.
American Primeval plays out like a bloody, brutal, violent Shakespearean tragedy that stays with you long after the story has ended and leaves you craving more.
American Primeval is currently streaming on Netflix.