Coming under suspicion by opposing forces, he was assassinated in February 1971, during the Laotian Civil War. He is honored as the "Mother of Writing" ("Niam Ntawv") among the Hmong people. Like the Cherokee Sequoyah of the early 19th century in Indian Territory (now United States), Shong Lue Yang is one of the few people from a pre-literate society known in history to have independently created an effective writing system.