The recently released Netflix miniseries “American Primeval” is a work of fiction that depicts Brigham Young and other Latter-day Saints in the 1850s as violent fanatics. Trading in the tired trope that religion leads to violence, these misrepresentations leave many viewers wondering about the line between fiction and fact.
Were 19th-century Latter-day Saints an unusually violent people? Was there heightened violence between native peoples like the Shoshone and the Latter-day Saints? And what about Brigham Young? Was he a violent, authoritarian leader as portrayed by the miniseries?
As a historian, I’ve been studying Brigham Young for the past 25 years. I’ve read his sermons, his letters and his journals. I’ve read the accounts of the people who knew him well. Brigham Young has his flaws as a person and leader, but any suggestion that “American Primeval” accurately describes him is deeply misguided.
The miniseries suggests that Utah in the 1850s was marked by horrendous violence between native peoples and Latter-day Saints. The relationships between Latter-day Saints and Indigenous leaders in early Utah Territory were complex and sometimes descended into deep misunderstandings and even violence.
But while Brigham Young had learned some ideas about Native peoples from a broader American culture that denigrated them, he also saw beyond his own culture. From the Book of Mormon, he believed that Indigenous nations were children of God and had an important role to play in God’s plan. They were his brothers and sisters. He shared the Gospel of Jesus Christ with them and he consistently charged the Latter-day Saints to treat Indigenous peoples with dignity.
For the most part, Latter-day Saints and native peoples had better relations than did white settlers and native peoples in other areas of the American West.
“American Primeval” particularly depicts violence between Latter-day Saints and Shoshone. This false depiction inverts actual history and draws on negative stereotypes that both the saints and the Shoshone were violent peoples.
In reality, the Shoshone leader Sagwitch and Brigham Young shared a commitment to peace between their people. In 1863, the U.S. Army (not Latter-day Saints) ambushed and slaughtered around 400 Shoshone at the Bear River Massacre; Sagwitch was injured but survived. A decade later, following visionary experiences by some Shoshone, Sagwitch and many others converted to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
After the dedication of the Logan Temple in 1884, Sagwitch and other Shoshone participated in sacred ordinances that they believed connected themselves eternally to their kinspeople who had been killed at Bear River. “American Primeval” tells its viewers that the Latter-day Saints and Shoshone were violent enemies to each other. In fact, though tensions existed at times, Latter-day Saints and Shoshone both sought peace. And, at the end of the day, it is incorrect to speak of Latter-day Saints and Shoshone as being in opposition to each other since many Shoshone were (and still are) Latter-day Saints.
“American Primeval’s” twisting of history is evident in the character of Abish Pratt, depicted as a fictional white Latter-day Saint woman who is captured by Shoshone and then becomes part of Native society. The real Abish Pratt was a young Native girl purchased out of slavery, given a name from the Book of Mormon, and raised by a Latter-day Saint family. If you are looking for history, this isn’t it.
The real-life stories of Latter-day Saint settlers and the Shoshone are compelling and meaningful. “American Primeval” is just a distortion.
Beginning in 1857, some accused Brigham Young of orchestrating the murders that occurred at the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Like other frontier preachers, Brigham’s sermons sometimes included fiery language and violent rhetoric that overshadowed his generous and charitable nature. He did this in part to shock or scare his audience, creating urgency in them to repent (a tradition among preachers at least as far back as Jonathan Edwards’s 1741 sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” that has been read by American students for generations). But historical evidence clearly demonstrates that the almost-unthinkable tragedy of Mountain Meadows was perpetrated at the behest of local Latter-day Saint leaders and that Brigham’s orders (which arrived too late) were to let the emigrants go unharmed. Even so, the false accusation persists.
For many, including some believing Latter-day Saints, Brigham seems thoroughly unlikable.
A friend of mine once commented to me that recent portrayals of Brigham made it difficult to understand why Latter-day Saints would follow him across the street, let alone the American West. But they followed him across the plains. They saw in him a prophet, not a violent fanatic but someone who taught them about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, a gospel of peace.
The Latter-day Saints believed that Brigham Young had their best interests in mind as he directed them to create settlements, build temples, pursue education, welcome impoverished immigrants from around the United States and Europe, and establish a society based on unity and their religious beliefs.
Brigham Young was fundamentally a man of peace who sought to follow the words of Jesus Christ: “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.” Like other leaders of his day and our own day, Brigham Young sometimes used violent rhetoric. But his actions tell a different story.
In winter 1838, while Joseph Smith was imprisoned on false charges, Brigham Young led the Saints’ painful exodus from Missouri, a result of religious hatred and violence towards them. In 1845, after the violent murder of Joseph Smith, Brigham Young faced the choice of either defending with force the Latter-day Saint community of Nauvoo, Illinois, or crossing the American plains into peaceful exile. He chose the arduous path of peace. He made the same choices repeatedly in his life, declaring that he would rather be wronged than to do wrong.
Once in Utah, Brigham Young preached repeatedly to his people that they should seek peace with native peoples. When faced with the arrival of a federal army in 1857 that he believed would again persecute his people, he prepared to retreat into exile rather than seek war. In a tremendously disruptive decision to Latter-day Saint society, he and all other Latter-day Saints in northern Utah moved south to Provo and other areas, with the intent to avoid war rather than provoke it.
In the end, the misrepresentation of Brigham Young is nothing new.
“American Primeval” is simply the latest iteration in a long tradition that goes back to Brigham Young’s own day. Brigham Young knew that he was maligned and misunderstood but he hoped that one day people would see who he really was. As he explained in 1873, his entire life was devoted to promoting the happiness of God’s children in this world and preparing them for the next life. He regretted that the world did not comprehend his mission better, but he also believed that the day would come when he would be understood.
This should be that day. Never before has the public had access to such a rich cache of Brigham Young’s own words, found in his sermons, letters and journals. In short, there is no need to rely on a sensationalized, fictional television program to know the real Brigham Young — a complex and imperfect man who loved God consistently and sought peace.
For more information, see the Church’s essay on peace and violence among 19th-century Latter-day Saints, first published a decade ago.
