The series, now streaming on Netflix, depicts the brutality with which the Mormons sought to create a new world for their beliefs, the pride with which the native people held onto their ancestral lands, and the tragedy of the people just seeking to make a new home in the chaos. But is any of it true?

While Brigham Young (Kim Coates) succeeds in burning down Jim Bridger’s (Shea Whigham) beloved fort, Bridger survives the fire. In real life, Jim Bridger would head east to plea his case to the U.S. Government against Young. Fort Bridger would be resurrected as a key U.S. military base of operations and Bridger wouldn’t die until 1881.

American Primeval on Netflix captivates with its gritty frontier drama. But is it based on a true story, or purely fiction? Let’s uncover the truth.

Netflix's limited series starring Betty Gilpin and Taylor Kitsch plays out against the background of the so-called Utah War.

Created by Mark L. Smith, Netflix’s Western historical drama miniseries, ‘American Primeval’ presents the story of a group of people and the violent conflicts they find themselves in the middle of. It begins with Sara Rowell,

This unsparingly grim Netflix western draws from a tradition of works eager to push beyond sanitized frontier myths. Here’s a supplementary guide.

However, it saps anything resembling wistfulness from its Hollywood Western roots, complicating its chances of cornering the post-Yellowstone market (alongside the latter's many spin-offs). What's left is the husk of a beloved genre,

Netflix‘s new limited series American Primeval gives a startling look at the American West in the mid-1800s, when Native Americans came to deadly blows with Mormon soldiers, pioneers looking for a new life,