The shocking truth behind Netflix’s new massacre drama

It is one of the most horrific scenes in modern television. A posse of hooded men on horseback approach an encampment of emigrants on a dusty plain somewhere in the middle of Utah. To the settlers, it seems clear that the men are Native Americans and, judging by the aggressive way they are riding, they are not making a courtesy call. Their fears are confirmed when a volley of arrows is unleashed, which hits men, women and children alike.

Within seconds, the men enter the camp and start to shoot and bludgeon to death everybody they can see. Tomahawks are smashed into faces, men are scalped, throats are slit. The air is full of screams, the ground is covered in blood. At times, the scene is unwatchable, so graphic and relentless is the violence and gore.

Finally, at the end of the massacre, when the men think everybody is dead, they remove their hoods – revealing that they are not Native Americans, but white men.

The scene is from American Primeval, a powerful new Netflix series directed by Peter Berg (Lone Survivor, Deepwater Horizon) and written by Mark L Smith (The Revenant). Set in the mid-19th century, the series shows the Wild West as not merely wild but utterly savage, brutal, and lawless. We are a very long way from the cuddliness of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid because, at times, American Primeval makes The Good, the Bad and the Ugly seem as tame as In the Night Garden.

What makes this series so interesting is that the era’s brutality is seen from the perspective of a mother and son who are trying to make the dangerous journey west through the mountains and prairies to be reunited with their husband and father. As they cross what was then called Utah Territory – rather than the State of Utah – in 1857 they encounter bounty hunters, murderers, inbred Francophone rapists, Native Americans, as well as the Mormon militia who carry out a deadly and horrific massacre.

Until the release of American Primeval, it would be reasonable to assume that very few people in Britain – and indeed the United States – had ever heard of the Mormon militia. Furthermore, it will also surprise nearly every viewer that the slaughter carried out in the series is based on truth, known as the Mountain Meadows Massacre, and remains one of the darkest chapters in the history of the Mormon Church.

Yet, this act of brutal mass murder – in which more than 120 were slaughtered – is often regarded as the worst act of domestic terrorism in the US until the Oklahoma City bombing nearly 140 years later in 1995.

The massacre started on 11 September 1857, when a group of Mormons and Paiute Native Americans attacked a wagon train of emigrants travelling from Arkansas to California. Over the course of five days, the Baker-Fancher party, comprising around 120 men, women, and children, was besieged.

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Ultimately, the settlers were deceived into surrendering under the promise of safe passage, only to be systematically executed – either by being shot or having their throats slit. Men were shot at point-blank range while marching under armed guard. Women and older children, travelling separately, were murdered in a similarly calculated manner. Some victims were reportedly clubbed or stabbed to death to save ammunition, while many were killed as they desperately tried to flee, begging for mercy.

Only 17 children under the age of seven were spared. After the massacre, the bodies of the victims were left exposed in the open, subject to decay and scavenging animals. Reports from US Army investigators, who arrived months later, described skeletons and decomposing remains scattered across the site. Some bodies showed signs of mutilation, possibly as part of post-mortem desecration or rituals involving the Paiute allies of the Mormons.

This atrocity unfolded against the backdrop of the Utah war, a conflict between Mormon settlers and the US government. Heightened tensions, fuelled by paranoia about federal persecution and anti-Mormon sentiment, created a volatile environment. That year, 1857, had seen the US government sending troops to the territory to suppress what it often regarded to be a rebellion by the Mormons, led by Brigham Young.

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In essence, the emigrants were in the wrong place at the wrong time. They were travelling from Arkansas to California, and they became a target of suspicion for the Mormons. Rumours spread that members of the group had ties to anti-Mormon mobs in Missouri and Illinois, though these claims were unsubstantiated. The emigrants were also accused of offensive behaviour, including insulting Mormon settlers and poisoning water sources – allegations that remain disputed.

What is certain is that leaders within the Mormon community, particularly Isaac Haight and John D Lee, played instrumental roles in orchestrating the attack. Despite attempts to shift blame onto Native Americans – as is shown in American Primeval – evidence clearly points to the massacre being primarily a Mormon-led operation.

For years, what happened that day remained somewhat obscure and unsurprisingly, the Mormon Church sought to minimise its role, attributing the atrocity to rogue individuals or external pressures. It was not until 2007, on the 150th anniversary of the massacre, that the Church issued a formal statement expressing “profound regret” but stopped short of a full apology.

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The Church’s reticence undoubtedly stems from its foundational narrative of persecution and survival. Naturally, acknowledging responsibility for the massacre complicates this narrative, and forces the Mormons to confront the darkest aspects of their history. Scholars and critics have called for greater transparency, urging the Mormons to open their archives and fully confront their past.

In contrast, descendants of the Baker-Fancher party have worked tirelessly to preserve the memory of their ancestors. The Mountain Meadows Monument, maintained jointly by the Mormon Church and descendants of the victims, serves as a site of reconciliation and remembrance. Yet, even today, there are tensions, as some feel the Church’s involvement in the monument is an attempt to control the narrative.

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Increasingly, the massacre is now seen as an act of domestic terrorism, and with good reason. The calculated nature of the attack, its targeting of civilians, and its ideological motivations certainly meet what we call terrorism today. This of course challenges the more romanticised notion of the Wild West that is normally portrayed by Hollywood, and it exposes the darker undercurrents of religious and cultural conflict that shaped America’s shaky emergence into nationhood.

The massacre can also be seen as a horrific example of the dangers of radicalisation. The insular nature of the Mormon community, coupled with its apocalyptic worldview, created a climate where violence was not only justified but sanctified. This is just like modern instances of religious extremism.

While the PR department of the Mormon Church is doubtless no fan of American Primeval, what the series does is provide a much-needed corrective to a Wild West of simple goodies and baddies. Very few come out well from the story, and while that may seem cynical and depressing, it reveals that the flip side of can-do and self-reliance is a world in which every man is for himself. It is something that America still struggles with today.