Netflix is ​​releasing a new six-episode series of fictional history Thursday morning that features Brigham Young and uses the Mountain Meadows Massacre as what the streamer calls “the stirring event that unites the cast of ‘American Primeval.'” .

According to the New York Times, the series is mostly fiction, but it centers on real events during the Utah War of 1857 and includes real people such as Brigham Young, the governor of the Utah Territory and the president of the Church of Jesus Christ of the last days. Saint of the day.

“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 direct and say, ‘Yes, this is historical fiction,’ and of course that gives them the freedom to do whatever they want.”

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

President Young and the Latter-day Saints resisted in many ways. Work on the construction of the Salt Lake Temple stopped and workers 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 between 1857 and 1858 because of the fighting.)

The war became known as “Buchanan’s Blunder” because it meant a financial bankruptcy for the United States. The government spent a staggering $15 million to $20 million to keep up to 3,500 soldiers at Camp Floyd, making it at one point the largest garrison in the country. The camp closed in 1861 when the Civil War broke out.

The story Netflix is ​​trying to tell

Several television writers say Netflix is ​​trying to capitalize on interest in “Yellowstone” and its spinoffs, which include “1883” and “1923.” These series tell violent stories about clashes between cultures and interests as the United States pushed 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 of war, blood and death,” he told the Times. “And that’s just the reality. That seems to be how it works with people.”

Berg and others involved in the production say that the accuracy they wanted to portray had to do with how difficult it was to survive in these circumstances and that they wanted to explore the violent side of humanity.

“I look forward to taking viewers into the most dynamic, intense and heartbreaking survival story possible,” he said, according to Netflix. “We’re going into the belly of the beast.”

Why are Latter-day Saints part of history?

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

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

By 1857, the federal and territorial governments were at odds. President Young decided to protect Utah from federal occupation. He encouraged Native Americans to raid migrant ranches, Jones Brown said. His strategy was to alert the federal government that Utahns would not protect the emigrants unless the army relented.

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

Some historians blame 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 other cases, the robbers simply scattered the herds. But at Mountain Meadows, Latter-day Saints and Paiutes exchanged gunfire with the emigrants and some were killed. Some Latter-day Saints knew they had been recognized. A local leader sent a letter to Brigham Young asking for advice, but local leaders ultimately made the decision to kill the Witnesses on September 11, 1857, two days before they received President Young’s response: “Let them be go.”

What is the plot of American Primeval?

The official Netflix logline is:

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

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 plays Isaac Reed, who reluctantly agrees to guide an endangered woman and her son through southern Utah.

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

Is the series historically accurate?

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

“I spoke with my friend Darren Perry, who is a direct descendant of some of the chiefs of the Shoshone people of that time, and we will be watching and taking 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 this is fictionalized.'”

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

A religious advisor to the series said that the series required fictional freedom by shortening timelines and reimagining Jim Bridger and Brigham Young.

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

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

“In recent years, the church has made great efforts to learn everything possible about the massacre,” the statement said. “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; All church files relating to the massacre were also subjected to close scrutiny. In the resulting book, published by Oxford University Press in 2008, authors Ronald W. Walker, Richard E. Turley Jr., and Glen M. Leonard concluded that Brigham Young’s self-indulgent sermons about outsiders, George A . Smith and other leaders contributed to this. In a climate of hostility, President Young did not order the massacre. Rather, verbal confrontations between individuals on the wagon train and settlers in southern Utah caused great concern, particularly in the context of the Utah War and other controversial events. A series of tragic decisions by local church leaders – who also held important leadership positions in the civil and militia administration in southern Utah – led to the massacre.”

Turley and Jones Brown co-authored Vengeance Is Mine in 2023 to bring the story up to date.