As a genre, the Western has long been a staple of American media. From Zorro Rides Again in 1937 to Yellowstone in 2024, the Western offers a rose-tinted lens through which American audiences can conceptualize the so-called “settling” of the West. In a cultural climate where many U.S. citizens are eager to harken back to “the good ol’ days,” Westerns serve as a comforting touchpoint. They evoke a mythologized past where gender roles were rigidly defined, and moral clarity seemed unquestioned.
Yet for viewers approaching media with a feminist or anti-colonial lens, the Western genre is often fraught. Netflix’s 2025 miniseries American Primeval invites this critical scrutiny. Set in 1857 Utah Territory, the show explores a complicated cast of characters, both fictional and historical, navigating faith, violence, and survival. This review approaches American Primeval with a particular focus on the intersectional impacts of colonization and religious belief, especially as it follows members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (hereafter LDS Church) on their journey westward.
While the series offers numerous characters that merit feminist analysis, this review concentrates on the experience of the fictional Jacob and Abish Pratt—average Saints seeking Zion—and their intersections with historical figures like Brigham Young, Bill Hickman, and James Wolsey.
Through these depictions, American Primeval offers a dramatized but revealing portrait of how faith communities responded to both persecution and their own complicity in the violent conquest of the West.
A Brief History of the LDS Church
To fully understand the series’ framing, a brief history of the LDS Church is helpful. The religious movement emerged from the fervor of the Second Great Awakening (1790–1840), a period of intense revivalism in the U.S. Joseph Smith, the church’s founder, reported being deeply troubled by the competing religious claims of his youth. In his autobiography—now canonized as scripture within the LDS Church—Smith recalls reading James 1:5: “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God…” He describes that prayer as resulting in a divine visitation from God the Father and Jesus Christ.
Smith’s subsequent translation of the Book of Mormon from golden plates—reportedly guided by divine instruments and the transcription assistance of early believers like Emma Hale, who later became his first wife—was met with widespread skepticism. The plates were never seen by others, and their disappearance was explained as a “translation,” a term used within the LDS tradition to describe an object’s passage from Earthly to celestial existence.
Persecution of Smith and his followers increased rapidly. After brief settlements in New York and Ohio, the Saints fled west to Missouri in 1831. Their anti-slavery stance made them unwelcome in the antebellum South, and in 1838 Missouri Governor Lilburn Boggs issued an extermination order, driving them out. They next settled in Commerce, Illinois—renamed Nauvoo—where the Saints built a thriving city with a large militia and municipal services. Their numbers swelled, bolstered by active missionary work in the British Isles and the migration of new converts.
Tragedy struck in 1844 when Joseph Smith, along with several other church leaders, were murdered by a mob, and the Saints were again forced to flee. Most followed Brigham Young, who claimed divine inspiration to lead the faithful west. Young, and others, relied on the prophetic words of Old Testament prophet Isaiah who said “The wilderness and the solidary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.”
The Fictional and the Faithful
Fictional Saints, Jacob and Abish Pratt, embody the struggles faced by thousands of real 19th- century Latter-day Saints. Their journey echoes that of women like Ruth Fellows Bennett, a real convert from Pennsylvania whose life was shaped by both faith and hardship. While we don’t see the life of the Pratt’s before arriving at Fort Bridger, it is stated that Jacob was initially betrothed to Abish’s sister, Eden. While Eden’s death is not discussed, it is conceivable that she was killed by mob violence in Missouri or Illinois. As general population Latter-day Saints fled the violence that their newfound faith generated, a hymn written by William W. Phelps in 1835 entitled Adam-ondi-Ahman was likely a familiar refrain amongst these pilgrims. This musical influence is a common refrain throughout the show as Jacob, Abish, and others seek a sacred homeland that will help them fully realize Isaiah’s promise. Indeed, for pioneers like the Pratts, this promise of beauty—particularly after the loss of Nauvoo—was not merely metaphorical. It drove their willingness to brave brutal elements and scarcity to build Zion from the dust.
Abish presents a fascinating subject for feminist interpretation. Her role as a wife is bound by patriarchal expectations and misogyny. We see her discomfort at being reduced to just another wife when they are first introduced at Fort Bridger. Throughout the season we see her given space to grieve, lead, and question. Her faith is as complicated as her circumstances, and her suffering is not merely symbolic—it’s personal, embodied, and often ignored by the male leaders
around her. As part of the brutality that surrounds her, she is abducted by the Shoshone but ultimately chooses to join them in resisting the colonization of their homeland.
Jacob is equally interesting when viewed through a feminist lens. When we are introduced to them at Fort Bridger, he seems to quietly share Abish’s distain for polygamy and shows
throughout the series that he is extremely committed to his only wife. When Abish is abducted in the Mountain Meadows Massacre, Jacob is committed to trying to find her. Jacob ultimately ends up as a pawn in the Nauvoo Legion’s plan to massacre the Shoshone. In the chaos he unintentionally kills his wife before ending his own life due to grief. Jacob is a sympathetic character as he uses the tools made available to him through the patriarchy to find his wife. As a character within this story, it is clear that his intersections of identity have themes of disenfranchisement.
Historical Violence and Religious Justification
The series also includes several historical figures whose legacies remain controversial. Brigham Young, Bill Hickman, and James Wolsey are depicted in moments of political and religious tension—juggling spiritual idealism with the realities of colonization and violence.
Historian Matthew Grow poses a provocative question: “Were 19th-century Latter-day Saints an unusually violent people?” I would argue that while the Saints were not exceptionally violent for their time, they were undeniably products of an intensely violent era. Having seen their prophet jailed, tarred and feathered, and eventually murdered, they were steeped in trauma and a theological justification for retributive action. Moreover, their expansion westward aligned with the broader colonial project of Manifest Destiny. LDS theology in the 19th century often racialized Indigenous Americans and people of African descent, interpreting their existence as
cursed by the sins of their forebearers. These beliefs provided religious justification for the
subjugation of those deemed “other”—especially those who refused to accept White, Christian salvation.
Additionally, the formation of the Nauvoo Legion was steeped in white supremacy. The Nauvoo Legion, originally organized in Illinois and sanctioned by the Illinois legislature, was essentially organized as a white supremacist organization under Article V of the Illinois state constitution. This article states:
“The militia of the State of Illinois shall consist of all free male ablebodies persons,
negroes, mulattoes, and Indians excepted. . . “
Although Latter-day Saints paid brief lip service to eschewing slavery the doctrinal foundation that can still be found today is a foundation of white supremacy. As Latter-day Saints colonized Utah, it is critical that we understand the social and religious reasons behind the brutality.
American Primeval doesn’t shy away from this brutality. It captures the collision of belief and bloodshed, the hypocrisy of sacred texts alongside imperial aims. While the show stops short of offering a full Indigenous counter-narrative, it gestures toward the overwhelming cost of westward expansion—not just to Native communities, but to the moral core of the settler communities themselves.
Conclusion: A Western Unsettled
In American Primeval, the familiar formula of the Western is disrupted—not through revisionist heroism, but through ambiguity, fatigue, and loss. The series neither wholly condemns nor glorifies its Mormon characters; instead, it situates them in the messy terrain between faith and
frontier. For viewers interested in feminist critique, religious studies, or settler colonialism, the show offers fertile ground for discussion.
As we continue to reckon with American media’s role in myth-making, American Primeval challenges us to look past nostalgia and confront the sacred justifications and real human costs of empire-building. Whether we see the desert blossom or wither may depend on how closely we’re willing to look.
References
Grow, M. (2025, January 17). What the tired tropes of ‘American Primeval’ get wrong about Brigham Young, early Latter-day Saints. Retrieved from Deseret News: https://www.deseret.com/faith/2025/01/17/what-american-primeval-gets-wrong-about- brigham-young/
Phelps, W. (n.d.). Adam-ondi-Ahman. In Hymns (p. 49). Smith, M. L. (Director). (2025). American Primeval [TV Series].
