“John Wayne. Now there was a great American.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdaGBNXMinY&t=202s
This is an interview with Maureen O’Hara. Earlier on she describes a scene from “The Quiet Man”. But skip to 4:18 and it has a clip of her asking Congress to award John Wayne the Congressional Medal. Very touching, and sums up this article!
As to movies - I’m not sure it is a western, but I loved “Jeremiah Johnson”.
Tom Horn
A couple of others which might be called westerns:
Quigley Down Under
The Mountain Men
Windwalker