Did The "Mountain Meadows Massacre" Really Happened?

When Netflix’s new limited series "American Primeval" debuted this week, it quickly claimed the top spot as the streamer’s most popular show. While watching, many were might be wondering how much of story is based on real-life events and if the characters are historically accurate.

Directed and executive produced by Peter Berg, with writing by Mark L. Smith, "American Primeval" is a six-episode drama set in 1857 Utah Territory. The series explores the violent conflicts between Native Americans, pioneers, Mormon soldiers, and the U.S. government. The historical drama stars Taylor Kitsch, Betty Gilpin, Kim Coates, Shea Whigham, Saura Lightfoot-Leon, and Shawnee Pourier.

According to Berg, "it is a historical drama that incorporates real events, such as the Mountain Meadows Massacre, along with the stories of actual people who lived in Utah during the deadly 1857 Utah War."

The Mountain Meadows Massacre happened on 11 September 1857. On that date, some 50 to 60 local militiamen in southern Utah, aided by American Indian allies, massacred about 120 emigrants who were traveling by wagon to California. This tragic event, which spared only 17 children age six and under, occurred in a valley called the Mountain Meadows, roughly 35 miles southwest of Cedar City.

According to the Salt Lake Tribune, the massacre happened during a period of heightened tensions between the federal government and the Brigham Young-led theocracy in Utah Territory.

As federal troops were dispatched to the region, the Latter-day Saints, fearing war, became increasingly distrustful of outsiders. When a wagon train of emigrants traveling from Arkansas to California passed through the area, Mormon militiamen and Paiute Indians surrounded the group and brutally slaughtered more than 100 men, women, and children. After the massacre those who did it took the emigrants’ belongings and tried to hide what they had done.

Without knowing what had happened to the emigrants, the U.S. army got stuck near Fort Bridger, in what is now Wyoming, during the winter. This gave the Latter-day Saint leaders and U.S. leaders a chance to meet and to find a solution to their disagreements. Their meetings ended what some people call the "Utah War" before any real fighting happened between the Mormon militia and the U.S. army.

Many years after the massacre, the government accused John D. Lee of leading the Mormon militia and the Indians who had killed the emigrants. He was convicted and executed 20 years after the massacre at the site where it had happened.

The Latter-day church punished some of the Saints who were involved. Eight Latter-day Saint leaders and militia leaders hid from law enforcers for the rest of their lives. Some Paiutes were looked down on by both Indians and others for killing the emigrants.

Berg said that he and Smith conducted extensive research to bring the massacre to life on screen.

"We used several books, met with authors of those books, went to the site of the massacre, and tried to get as comprehensive a understanding of how that event happened as possible, from what was going on with the Mormon church at that moment to what was happening with the pioneers trying to move through the area, and what Native American tribes were caught in the crossfire," he told Town & Country.

The directed continued, "We used that event to ground us in history; the Mountain Meadows Massacre and the tension between the U.S. government and the Mormon Church could anchor our attempts at telling a story that is, in many ways, based upon fact."

Because the perpetrators were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Church has made great efforts to heal the wounds caused by the massacre.

In 1999, then-President Gordon B. Hinckley joined with descendants of the victims to dedicate a monument at the site. Since then, the Church has worked with descendant groups to maintain the monument and surrounding property and is committed to improving and preserving the area in the future.