Netflix‘s new western show American Primeval takes place in 1857 Utah Territory. We’re still four years out from the American Civil War and it won’t be another forty two years until Utah officially becomes a state. In this lawless land, tensions don’t just run high between the white colonizers and the Native Americans, but between various rival indigenous tribes, the U.S. Army, and the Mormon Church’s ruthless Nauvoo Legion.
**Spoilers for American Primeval, now streaming on Netflix**
The first episode of American Primeval, directed and executive produced by Peter Berg, follows single mother Sara Rowell (Betty Gilpin) as she and her son Devin (Preston Mota) attempt to make their way from Jim Bridger’s (Shea Whigham) Fort Bridger to California. When they can’t hire a guide, they team up with a wagon train of settlers from Arkansas and kindly Mormons making their way further west. However, before the end of American Primeval Episode 1, tensions erupt between the pioneers briefly camping in Utah Territory and the local Mormon militia.
What follows is a grotesque massacre in which the Nauvoo Legion, masked and disguised as local Paiute natives, murders the nonviolent settlers as they camp for the night. Men are scalped, women and children slaughtered, and not even the Mormons amongst the party are spared.
Sara and Devin are able to escape only with the help of local frontiersman Isaac Reed (Taylor Kitsch) and new friend Two Moons (Shawnee Pourier). While the quartet continues on their journey to California together, other characters aren’t so lucky. Mormon Jacob Pratt (Dane DeHaan) awakes in the aftermath, realizing his wife Abish (Saura Lightfoot-Leon) is missing and he was left for dead after being scalped. Abish, for her part, narrowly survives further horrors by catching the eye of Shoshone warrior Red Feather (Derek Hinkey).
But did this horrific massacre really happen? Is American Primeval based on a true story? Or is it all a figment of writer Mark L. Smith and director Peter Berg’s collective imaginations? Here’s everything you need to know about the history that inspired Netflix’s American Primeval…
Is American Primeval Based on a True Story?
Yes, and no. American Primeval is a work of historic fiction. Meaning, Sara and Isaac’s story is made up, as is the story of Jacob and Abish. However, the backdrop of American Primeval is based on reality.
In 1857, Mormons disguised as Paiutes did massacre a group of settlers in a tragedy known as the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Jim Bridger and Fort Bridger did exist — and both ran afoul of Brigham Young (Kim Coates) and his ambitions for the young Mormon faith…
American Primeval: All About the Mormon Nauvoo Legion and the Mountain Meadows Massacre:
The Mountain Meadows Massacre was a series of violent attacks that occurred between September 7–11, 1857 in Utah Territory. Over those days, members of the Mormon militia, known as the Nauvoo Legion, murdered at least 120 members of the Baker-Fancher party, with the help of some local Paiute Native Americans. The Nauvoo Legion disguised themselves as Paiute in an attempt to cover up their crime. While the crime was acknowledged in contemporary press — and even commented upon by Mark Twain — there wouldn’t be a comprehensive historical document on the subject until Mormon historian Juanita Brooks’s landmark 1950 work, The Mountain Meadows Massacre.
“The Mormon Church has taken responsibility for that crime,” American Primeval director and executive producer Peter Berg told Decider. “Something that we try and do is offer some context as to at least understanding how tensions got so great in that area where Brigham Young and the Mormon leadership felt that the most prudent course of action for their self-preservation was this attack.”
“We don’t apologize for it, but we do offer some context for how tensions got so high.”
Over the course of American Primeval, we do learn how the early Mormon Church wound up in Utah only after fleeing religious persecution further east. As more and more settlers moved west, many Mormons felt the only way their young faith could survive was to violently defend their new homeland.
American Primeval star Kim Coates told Decider that he “read all these novels and biographies” to get a grip on Brigham Young and what potentially drove him to condone these atrocities.
“Going into it, was so beautiful to try and figure this guy out,” Coates said. “Once I found out how he dressed and how he looked and the color of his hair and how many wives he had at that moment and what what it all meant to him and what this Mountain Meadows Massacre meant to him.”
“Was he somewhat responsible? Did he have nothing to do with it? Like we had to make choices. Peter and I had to make choices with Mark L. Smith, the writer, and we did.”
Coates added that he hopes viewers make up their own mind about Brigham Young’s involvement in the massacre and what it all meant.
Who Was the Real Jim Bridger? All About Shea Whigham’s Character in American Primeval:
Of course, Brigham Young isn’t the only real historic figure in American Primeval. Shea Whigham’s incredibly charismatic frontiersman Jim Bridger was something of a 19th century legend.
Jim Bridger was born in 1804 in Virginia and was inspired to travel west by the Lewis and Clark expeditions. He would be one of the first non-indigenous people to see and explore Yellowstone National Park. By the 1840s, he was a well-known guide — though he mistakenly told the Donner Party their path to California would only take them 40 days, when it wound up being 80, and, uh, they became trapped in the Sierra-Nevadas and infamously ate each other.
Bridger founded Fort Bridger in 1842, in what is now present-day Wyoming. He discovered “the Bridger Pass,” which shorted the Oregon Trail by 61 miles, and created “the Bridger Trail,” which was a safer path to the gold fields of Montana.
Fort Bridger would be burned to the ground by Mormons in 1857 and Jim Bridger would go East to enlist the U.S. government’s help against Brigham Young and the Mormons. A newly raised Fort Bridger would become a military base in the region. Bridger would eventually die on his Missouri farm in 1881.
American Primeval is now streaming on Netflix.
