Young Man Afraid Of His Horses

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Young-Man-Afraid-of-His-Horses holding a cane and fan in a photograph taken in 1884

Young-Man-Afraid-Of-His-Horses [Tasunkakokipapi] (1830-1900), also translated as His-Horses-Are-Afraid and They-Fear-Even-His-Horses, was a chief of the Oglala Sioux. Commonly misinterpreted, his name is meant to mean, roughly translated, as the man of whose horse we are afraid meaning that the bearer of the name was so feared in battle that the even the sight of his horse would inspire fear.

In 1866, Young-Man-Afraid-Of-His-Horses joined forces as a lieutenant under Red Cloud when the Dakota resisted attempts by the United States government to build the Montana trail through the Sioux hunting grounds of Powder River, resulting in a two year conflict known as Red Cloud's War. After the peace settlement in 1868, Young-Man-Afraid-Of-His-Horses retired to the Pine Ridge Agency in South Dakota serving as president of the Pine Ridge Indian Council.

Young-Man-Afraid-of-His-Horses (Tashun-Kakokipa), in a photograph by G.E. Trager, standing in front of his lodge in Pine Ridge, South Dakota on January 17, 1891.

A strong supporter of friendly relations with the Federal government, he would attend several delegations to Washington, D.C. for improved treatment as well as an acting negotiator with federal authorities to assist the Sioux Nation in adjusting to reservation life before and after the massacre at Wounded Knee before his death in 1900, and buried in the Makansan Presbyterian Cemetery near Oglala, South Dakota.

[edit] Further reading

Hanson, James. Famous Indians of Northwest Nebraska. Chadron, Nebraska: Chadron Centennial, 1983.
Humfreville, James Lee. Twenty Years Among Our Hostile Indians. Mechanicsburg, Pennsylavnia: Stackpole Books, 2002. ISBN 0-8117-2814-5