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Tragically, he was not destined to live a long life as a leader of this people, as had his father, Man Afraid of His Horses, who died at age eighty-one. Around noon on July 13, 1893, while on his way to visit the Crows, Young Man Afraid fell dead from his horse, presumably suffering a massive heart attack or stroke. He was only fifty-six years old.
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Young Man Afraid’s death did not go unnoticed. Capt. Charles Penney, acting agent at Pine Ridge, called Young Man Afraid "the leading man among the Indians and representative of the best and most loyal element," and wired Washington that the Office of Indian Affairs should pay for a proper funeral service. The commissioner responded by praising Young Man Afraid "for his steadfast loyalty . . . to the Government, and his earnest and determined effort at all times to preserve peace between this people and their white neighbors, (which) has excited the respect and admiration of the entire country."
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The agent and the commissioner got it partly right. Young Man Afraid did indeed play a significant role during the reservation years in preserving the peace. His loyalty, however, was not to Washington, but to his family, the Oglalas, and the Lakota people. Young Man Afraid’s politics were always guided by how best he could lead the Oglalas as they moved from a nomadic lifestyle to the new world of the reservation.
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His greatness as a peacemaker and protector of his people has not been fully recognized. A reporter from the Omaha World-Herald, who wrote a glowing obituary in the flowery language of the nineteenth century lamented, "Many a white man, whose deeds have been less valorous, has had his memory kept green by monuments. Young Man Afraid of His Horses . . . will go to the happy hunting ground, unwritten and unsung."
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