I came back to suggest a different point of view on the film Dances with Wolves.

The Homesman, with Hillary Swank and Tommy Lee Jones revolves around “Prairie Madness”. The isolation of prairie life very brought about depression so severe it often ended in suicide, explosive violence, or a return to the East.

Before Dunbar meets the People, his diary entries show a man falling into the despair and depression known as Prairie Madness. That is the reason, I thought Dances With Wolves was a story about the People (Lakotas) saving Dunbar/Costner from death by suicide or insanity.

Showing both the Homesman and Dances With Wolves would help students make sense of this part of history.

For those who might be interested in Prairie Madness, here is a link to a story published in the 1893 edition of Atlantic Monthly titled The Isolation of Life on Prairie Farms - and begins...

"In no civilized country have the cultivators of the soil adapted their home life so badly to the conditions of nature as have the people of our great Northwestern prairies."

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1893/09/the-isolation-of-life-on-prairie-farms/523959/