Heroes are in short supply in the Western hellscape painted by “American Primeval.” Many have recently commented on the wild historical inaccuracies of which the Netflix miniseries is guilty. I recently said the only thing that it got right was Brigham Young’s hair. That was an exaggeration, of course, even if only a slight one. This violent fever dream of a Western has a limited relationship to historical fact, depicting “Mormons” as a central source of extensive violence.
Was the real West shoot-outs in the O.K. Corral or a quiet agrarian life on the frontier? The reality was not either/or — it was both. Pioneers experienced lower mortality rates than those stuck in the cities of the East. Many a homesteader built a peaceful life on the frontier. Racial and religious minorities, however, were often targets of violence. Between 1846 and 1890, there were at least seven massacres in which more than 100 people were slaughtered, the majority committed by the U.S. Army against Indigenous nations.
Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are used to having stories told about them. From the 19th-century debate about whether the Saints belonged in America to the question of whether a Latter-day Saint could become president in 2012 to this newest series, stories will continue to be told about us. And though this most recent horror-filled entry of “American Primeval” feels shocking, it is reviving a pattern that began long ago.
From the publication of the Book of Mormon in 1830, stories were told of how the new scripture elevated the position of Native peoples. Long before the 1857 Mountain Meadows Massacre, Latter-day Saints were understood to be savages because they allied themselves with Indigenous nations. They were accused of being too welcoming to Native peoples and Black people — which loomed as one motivation to violently expel the Saints from their homes in Jackson County, Missouri.
I have spent most of my career studying the horror of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. It is a moment that we must not ignore. A few individuals hellbent on retribution and a terrible convergence of catastrophic elements led to the darkest moment in Latter-day Saint history. For Latter-day Saints, this atrocity is an exception to generally good behavior. Yet the earlier rumors about violent Saints became true on that now-infamous September 11th.
And from 1857 until today, some have argued that the Mountain Meadows Massacre is all you need to know about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. For them, that dark day shows who we really are.
The aftermath
After the massacre, a California newspaper reported that “Mormons in the Capacity of Savages” had attacked an emigrant train. The reporter wrote that he “knew” this was who the “Mormons” were. He was then certain that the Saints were responsible for every violent act that had occurred on the trail to the West. “American Primeval” lives in this same assumption.
The massacre efficiently ignited stories — creative expansions on the assault — that spread like wildfire. After John D. Lee was executed for the massacre, nearly all involved in the trial wanted to write their own version. All hoped to profit off the story.
Stories of the massacre were first published as news and then extended to fiction as a new century began. Starting with a few facts, authors would craft a narrative around the killings to show the truth of the “Mormons.” This endured.
The 21st century has brought new attention. In 2007’s, “September Dawn,” the writer of the screenplay noted that she wanted to ensure people could see the Mormons for who they really are. It was so heavy-handed a critic asked, “Why does this film even exist?” In contrast, the first Netflix limited series to incorporate the massacre narrative, “Godless” (2017), brought award-winning cinematography and included a “Downton Abbey” star. It never uttered the word “Mormon,” yet it too followed the formula. The origin story of its villain was Mountain Meadows — an orphan saved from the slaughter. He and his gang laid waste to whole towns in Colorado as he played out the tenets of a fake religion of violence taught to him by his adoptive Latter-day Saint father.
“Under the Banner of Heaven” in 2022 built upon Jon Krakauer’s bestselling book with its related message: Mormonism produces violent men.
The need for nuance
“American Primeval” is the most recent entry into the genre. The West portrayed in the series is nasty, brutish, and lives run violently short. But the Saints and their leader, Brigham Young, are depicted as the worst of all the brutes. Behind their mild exteriors, they are portrayed as duplicitous, calculating and horrifically violent. Young does not specifically order the massacre this time, but in the silence, the indictment of Young still grows.
Nuance is not usually the stuff of blockbusters. Yet the care with which filmmakers used in their depictions of the culture, language and dress of the Shoshone and Paiute peoples demonstrated that these moviemakers can be nuanced. None of the nuance, however, is offered to the Latter-day Saints. A caricature always includes some true elements and yet sometimes engorges the element to a point where the truth is unrecognizable.
The Mountain Meadows Massacre was horrific and inexcusable. It is important that we learn from both the good and the bad of history. But it is not ridiculous to ask for balance and nuance in its telling. A violent fever dream of a Western only reinforces previous assumptions of us versus them, black hats (in this instance hoods) and white hats. If we know who is good and who is bad, then we don’t need to think. A real account would require all of us — Latter-day Saints and others — to not only recognize the horror but also to likewise see their humanity. We will need to ask hard questions like: How much are we like them? Is there similar opposition in us? We need a full and balanced understanding to grapple with and ensure that we don’t repeat the past.
As King Benjamin pleaded with his people in the Book of Mormon, “Remember, and perish not.” We simplify and forget the past at our own peril.
(Janiece Johnson) Janiece Johnson is the author of the award-winning “Convicting the Mormons: The Mountain Meadows Massacre in American Culture” and co-editor of “The Mountain Meadows Massacre: Complete Legal Papers, Two-Volume Set.”
Janiece Johnson is the author of award-winning “Convicting the Mormons: The Mountain Meadows Massacre in American Culture” and co-editor of “The Mountain Meadows Massacre: Complete Legal Papers, Two-Volume Set.”
