“Appreciating Brother Brigham”

“Appreciating Brother Brigham” January 15, 2025

 

JRCL at BYU, UT USA
The J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

I delivered relatively brief remarks at the August 2024 FAIR conference under the title “Appreciating Brother Brigham.”  (Including the short Q&A session that followed, they lasted just slightly more than thirty-three minutes.)  A video of my presentation has now been posted on the FAIR website, where you can watch and listen to those remarks if you’re brave enough to do it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bE_zYtiKB_4

Ricks Memorial Gardens, Rexburg, Idaho
The Thomas E. Ricks Memorial Gardens, on the Idaho campus of Brigham Young University, in Rexburg  (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

And, speaking of FAIR, they have put a very useful collection of links up on their website that I commend to your attention:  “Fact-Checking American Primeval: What’s Real and What’s Fiction?”

I continue to share items with you about American Primeval that float across my radar screen.  Why?  Because I think that at least some of you will find them interesting.  Here’s one, for instance, from MovieWeb (emphasis in the original):

American Primeval, a six-part miniseries on Netflix . . . explores the gritty and harsh life on the American frontier. The Western is based in part on real events that took place in Utah during the 1850s and incorporates many of the same brutality and fortitude exhibited by the people who lived through them. . . .

During the Utah War of 1857 and 1858, Mormons Attacked Other Mormons to Try to Preserve Their Way of Life . . .

By September 1857, Lee and his fellow militia leader Isaac C. Haight recruited members of the Southern Paiute tribe to attack a group of Mormons called the Baker-Fancher party passing through Mountain Meadows. . . .

It’s not entirely clear whether Young ordered the attack on the group at Mountain Meadows . . .

The Nauvoo Legion attacked the group of Mormon settlers at Mountain Meadows and, after five days, the survivors attempted to surrender. After the remaining members of the Baker-Fancher party were disarmed, they were led away — only to be attacked once again, by “Indians, among whom were Mormons in disguise.”

Lindsay Hansen Park was evidently the Mormon-history consultant for American Primeval.  I wonder how she would rate the summary given above.

And here’s a piece from Men’s Health (of all things!) entitled “Kim Coates Makes American Primeval‘s Brigham Young Into a Chilling Western Villain: It’s another great role for an actor you’ve likely seen a few times before”:

One of the main threads and depictions in American Primeval is how the Mormons—the early Church of Latter Day Saints—are expanding their grasp on Utah at any cost. In the very first episode, that is realized in the form of the excruciatingly bloody Mountain Meadows Massacre, a real event that the Church of Latter Day Saints has in the time since accepted responsibility for; we see murders, scalpings, and all sorts of horrible violence in this grueling long scene that sets the tone for the remainder of the limited series.

American Primeval early on establishes the Mormons as the show’s relentless antagonists, but it’s only once Brigham Young is properly introduced, as both their political and religious leader, that the threat feels even more real. Young is a gifted orator, a calm speaker whose words actually suggest a violent, terrifying future of violence and brutality at the benefit of his church and to the detriment of everyone in their path.

Forbes:  “Is Netflix’s ‘American Primeval’ Based On A True Story? What’s Fact Vs. Fiction”

Netflix’s new limited series American Primeval debuted this week and quickly claimed the top spot as the streamer’s most popular show. . . . Brigham Young (portrayed by Coates), the leader of the Mormon Church at the time, commanded his army known as the Nauvoo Legion.

People:  “Is American Primeval a True Story? All About the Deadly Utah Massacre That Inspired the Netflix Miniseries (and Its Connection to 2015’s The Revenant): In 1857, a Mormon army murdered over 120 settlers — and covered up their involvement for decades”  If you read Eric Newman’s comment with any degree of attention, you may detect a certain political vibe: Everything good about America’s history is a lie:

The only thing more horrific than the violent story of American Primevalis that it’s based on true events. . . .

the Utah War, a confrontation between the Mormon people and the U.S. government over land ownership [?] . . .

Executive producer Eric Newman described the retelling as “an anti-nostalgic, truthful look at our history.”

“These rose-colored glasses in which we view the past, from the first Thanksgiving onward, is a lie,” he told Tudum. “It’s a lie meant to make us feel good about this really rugged, brutal path that we’ve taken. I think we do a disservice to ourselves by looking at it in that way because it prevents us from seeing it [happening] again.”

Barbara Jones Brown, co-author (with Richard Turley) of the excellent 2023 Oxford University Press volume Vengeance Is Mine: The Mountain Meadows Massacre and Its Aftermath, offers an interesting and historically-informed take on American Primeval in a Facebook entry here.

BYU-I Taylor Bildg.
The John Taylor Building, on the Rexburg campus of Brigham Young University – Idaho
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

Regarding another recent angle of attack on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its fascistic and oppressive attempt to ensure that Brigham Young University remains faithful to the doctrines and teachings of the religious organization that sponsors it, here are two recent articles in the Deseret News that I like very much:

Jeffrey Thayne and Steve Moody, “Teaching at BYU gives us freedom we would not have at other universities: Where others see freedom in academia at large, we see restrictions. And where others see constraint at Brigham Young University campuses, we see freedom — an uncommon liberty to take faith commitments seriously in our teaching and research”

Professor Thayne, by the way, was with a participant with our group in Göteborg, Sweden,  for last summer’s FAIR presentations there, and Steve Moody is a member of the BYU Department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages, where I myself spent my long and sordid career:

Shima Baradaran Baughman, “Perspective: Why I returned to teach at BYU: Being able to expand my faith alongside academic questions and classroom teaching has been nothing less than life-changing”

Posted from Bountiful, Utah

 

 

"From the Data Republican site it appears that Dwhlin's Open Stories Foundation got no money ..."

Federal Funding for Critics of the ..."
"Based on the numbers there it would appear that the Sunstone Foundation spends about 25% ..."

Federal Funding for Critics of the ..."
"The DataRepublican site does not however say what government grants these organizations get. Salt Lake ..."

Federal Funding for Critics of the ..."
"Also, the Lord is in charge:16 And he answered, Fear not: for they that be ..."

Federal Funding for Critics of the ..."

Browse Our Archives