This eight-part PBS series tells the story of the West as a series of biographies. A Ken Burns project, the series combines images, source readings, and interviews with historians. A useful companion site includes source material and teacher lesson plans.
This tale of an immigrant's experience in late 19th-century America climaxes in the Oklahoma Land Rush of 1883, a federal land giveaway rooted in the Homestead Act of 1862. Brewster Higley's experience shared little with Tom Cruise's, though. In fact, few homesteaders had Cruise's luck; two-thirds of all homesteaders failed in the first five years and never received title to their land.
This film's about Wyoming, not Kansas, and it takes place in the early-20th century, not the 19th, but it nicely captures the homesteader experience. The film was partially financed by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and a team of historians monitored the historical content.