Diksha Sundriyal
The conflict between several warring factions comes to a head in Netflix’s ‘American Primeval.’ On the one hand, there is the Mormon militia, led by Brigham Young, who is looking for a place to settle his people without the fear of death and persecution hanging over them. On the other side are the Native Americans who have called these lands home for a very long time and are trying to protect their territory, most of which has already been taken away from them. Then there is the US Army, which is trying to keep the peace in the area while also making sure that, at the end of the day, it is the US government that has a claim on the lands. The representative of the army is Captain Edmund Dellinger, whose perspective on the entire thing is changed as he sees the violent power struggle roll out in front of his eyes. SPOILERS AHEAD.
The Fictional Captain Edmund Dellinger Represents the Third Angle of the Conflict in Utah Territory
‘American Primeval’ masterfully creates a concoction of reality and fiction to deliver a compelling tale of realistic characters. While we see real-life people like Brigham Young and Jim Bridger, most of the characters are entirely fictional, and Lucas Neff’s Captain Dellinger is one of them. He is sent to the West to keep the peace between the warring tribes and curb the increasing power of the Mormon militia. At first, he is enthusiastic about his job, but soon, all the bloodshed around him, with many innocents dying for nothing, disillusions him with the whole thing.
Something similar happened to US Army Brevet Major James Henry Carleton, who was sent to the region to look into the Mountain Meadows Massacre. He was a part of the federal investigation, and his job was to determine the real culprits of the massacre while also giving proper burials to the victims. To Carleton’s horror, there weren’t many survivors, but the ones who did live to tell the tale were brought under the government’s protection and either sent back home to their relatives or given a chance to start fresh somewhere else. A mass grave was dug to lay to rest the remains of about 34 people, all of whom were left in very bad shape.
While Dellinger’s investigation heavily rests on Abish Pratt and her pointing out the culprits from the Mormon militia, Carleton took a different route, though it can be assumed that some of the survivors identified the culprits. In the end, it was concluded that the attack wasn’t staged entirely by the Native Americans, though it was made to look like that. In fact, the whole thing was executed by Mormons, who were joined by some Paiutes. A total of 120 people were killed, their belongings stolen from, and being left for the wild animals to claim them.
Much like Dellinger is shocked and horrified by the scale of violence, Carleton, too, had some strong words about what he saw on the ground. In his report, he spoke of the terrible scene in front of his eyes when he arrived on the scene while also detailing his plan to get to the bottom of the truth. In the show, Dellinger’s fate takes a different and rather tragic turn by the end. However, things were much different for Major Carleton. Following his report, he left the region and was sent to serve somewhere else. He passed away on January 7, 1873, at the age of 59. At the time, he had been promoted to lieutenant colonel and was serving with the 4th Cavalry Regiment in San Antonio, Texas. As opposed to him, Dellinger never gets to leave the region and becomes the victim of a massacre much like the one he was sent to investigate.
