If you wanted something done on frontier land, you built it yourself.  No one just gave settlers what they had, contrary to what you might have learned in school.   

We see this can-do spirit reflected in the Netflix’s series “American Primeval,” a shocking and realistic portrayal of the American West in the mid 19th century.  It’s a mix of pioneers, Mormons, and Native Americans.  The Indians are portrayed honorably, but yeah, they scalp people.  Then there’s Mormons who are surprisingly militant; not like friendly Mormons you might have met nowadays. They have their own militia and are very set on Utah, to the point of nearly provoking war with the United States military. 

Bringham Young

Kim Coates as Brigham Young steals the show, though one imagines that Mormons are not too thrilled with this portrayal.  To say nothing of historical accuracy, his villainy and cunning is something to behold.  In “American Primeval,” Young is a hypocritical, or at least contradictory figure, given his fervent religious feeling and the ruthlessness with which he seeks to eliminate anyone who threatens his promise land.   

The Mormons ally with a Native American tribe against pioneers who would settle in the Utah region; such that it shows the nuance of American history, in a way that, again, you don’t really learn about in the American education system. 

Indeed, the historical Brigham Young did leverage his relationship with local Native American tribes to harass settlers whom he found inconvenient.  But to be fair, according to PBS, the Mormons prior to the Mountain Meadows Massacre “had more often been victims of violence than its perpetrators.”

Two Moons

The beautiful Shawnee Pourier as Two Moons is a quiet and graceful presence in “American Primeval.” Literally quiet–her tongue has been cut out presumably by her overbearing and abusive family. A child who tags along with Sara, her son and Isaac on their seemingly never-ending journey, Two Moon’s looks are meaningful enough to make up for her lack of speech. And as an actress, Shawnee’s beautiful face is enough of a presence without dialogue.

According to her profile on a casting website, the 20 year-old actress is Lakota and speaks the language at a conversational level.

Abish

A subplot in the series is the mission to find and rescue Abish, who is missing after her party is attacked by a Morman militia disguised among their Indian allies.  However, being a prototype of the strong/ stubborn Western female, Abish doesn’t especially want to be found, given her disenchantment with the patriarchal Mormon society she’s married into.  

Indeed, our cultural mores break through via the character Abish regardless that the series is set in the American frontier in the 19th century.  She is a strident symbol of feminism and cultural marxism.   

Abish is the wife of Jacob Pratt, an earnest Mormon on his way to the promised land–Utah. After their party gets attacked, she ends up with a tribe of Native Americans, and apparently she’s never been happier.  On the moral axis of this series, the Native Americans are 100 percent good, whereas the Mormons (if not all Whites) are all bad. In other words, there is a fair amount of White guilt playing out in “American Primeval.”

As a prototype for a liberal White women, Abish is performing the ultimate virtue signal

As a prototype for a liberal White women, Abish is performing the ultimate virtue signal, riding at the head of a Native American tribe all the while telling White men how bigoted they are and how misunderstood the Indian tribe is.  

They don’t abuse her in any way, certainly not.  The only transgression is when Chief Red Feather takes her necklace.  However, the necklace is returned quite honorably.  That’s realistic, right? 

Fizzles Out

Like a lot of series, “American Primeval” tends to fizzle out towards the end, so maybe it’s best as a limited series.   The interesting tensions in the earlier episodes devolve to constant fight scenes, particularly related to Isaac’s repeated rescues of Sara Rowell from various villains.  The usually clever dialogue devolves to grunts and screams in the heat of battle.

Though the series does devolve into gratuitous violence, the budding chemistry between Sara and her knight in not-so-shining armor, Isaac, gives the series a dramatic arc which keeps it engaging to the end. 

Grade: A

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