Stories of the Wild West were told in both the USA and the DSA, but they often diverged from each other in what characteristics were celebrated and themes promoted.
A classic example is the real life story of outlaw Robert Pruitt, which was fictionalized on both sides of the border, but in different ways.
In the United States of America,
The Downfall of the Pruitt Gang was one of the first Wild West tales to be sensationalized. It's protagonist was former Legion cavalryman turned marshall, Albert Lee, who was order to end cross-border raids into the then unorganized Plains Territory from British Arkansas. Lee, his trusty sidekick Jacque Lebeau, and his deputies fought off wild animals and wild Indians during the hunting down of the Pruitt Gang. They finally capturing some of the gang during an attempted robbery of a stagecoach, one about which Marshall Lee had created a rumor that it was carrying a payroll. When Robert Pruitt and his remaining gang sought to break out their fellow members, they were defeated in the now famous gunfight with Marshall Lee. Albert Lee would have several other stories written based on his exploits in the Legion and those as a marshall after the Pruitt Gang Gunfight, but this remained his most popular tale.
In the Dominion of Southern America,
The Ballad of Bobby Pruitt was a very different story (in fact, it was both a story and a popular song). It actually starts during the Southern Civil War, when the the three Pruitt brothers served in the Confederationist army as raiders, fighting in Louisiana and Arkansas. Pruitt's Raiders, named after their leader, eldest brother George Pruitt, were one of the most successful raider units of the war. The tale tells that the troubles of the Pruitts began during one of their last raids of the war on a Loyalist plantation. During the fighting the elderly black nanny of the family was fatally shot, but didn't die before pronouncing a curse on the whole Pruitt family. While Pruitt's Raiders were one of the most successful raider units of the war, the war was lost already. During their last engagement of the war, George was killed, and the middle brother, Robert Pruitt, swore at his brother's hastily dug grave to never give up the fight and never give in to the British and their Loyalist toadies. Robert 'Bobby' Pruitt would lead his raiders and his younger brother Earl into outlawry in Texas and Arkansas. They were seen as romantic figures as often as outlaws by the people of the region. Eventually, Southern Royal Mounted Ranger Samuel Smith was charged with bringing in the Pruitts, an irony since he had married their sister Sarah. Ranger Smith saw it as his duty to bring the Brothers to justice. While hunting the Pruitts, who had no idea who was leading the Rangers, the Pruitt Gang staged an ambush in which Sam Smith was wounded before both sides realized the reality. When the Pruitts saw that they were gunning down their own brother-in-law, they broke off the engagement and ran. Even wounded, Ranger Smith pursued them, nearly cutting off their escape across the border into the USA. Smith held his men at the border, and the Pruitts met him there, swearing they'd not return to their home if it meant they'd draw the blood of kin again.
The Pruitt Gang survived as outlaws in the USA for a time before being ambushed during a stagecoach robbery by US Marshals, and in the fight Earl Pruitt was wounded and captured. Compelled by family honor, Bobby Pruitt told his remaining men that he would only take volunteers on a forelorn mission to rescue his brother, for which all volunteered. The Pruitts almost succeeded, but in the end both Bobby and Earl were killed in the fight for freedom, supposedly bringing to a conclusion the curse, though some variants of the story swear that their ghosts still ride the praire.