Does Bruce Dern die?

Yes. You can hear him screaming in pain (broken leg being wrenched around as well as being drug over things) then it just stops abruptly, and the boys are shown looking toward him with complete apathy. It was implied that he died from the dragging (probably by smashing his head on a rock, breaking his neck, heart giving out from pain and shock or whatever -the cause was unimportant). What was important was the look of no emotions on the boys faces. They weren't jumping with joy or shaking hands about getting revenge, and they weren't depressed and looking away because they had killed a man. The director didn't want them to seem blood thirsty with vengence in their hearts, just doing what needed to be done (retrieving the boss's cattle) and AVENGING (not getting revenge) Wil Anderson's murder.

"I'd resent that if I were sober."
Lt. Col Henry Blake

GOD, DID YOU ACTUALLY SEE THIS THING? THEN WHAT KIND OF A QUESTION IS THAT?

"Does Bruce Dern die?"
Ya think?

It is possible Dern did live and was the one who hid John Wayne's body so the kids would not be able to place the headstone over his grave.

If he didn't, those boys would have to look over their shoulders for the rest of their lives. :D

In all probability, Longhair [a.k.a. Asa Watts] does die. But his left leg never looked broken; did he only say that in a thread of a hope to get any help from one of the boys he had terrorized? It was probably hurt, being fallen on by the horse, and his 'diagnosis' was it was broken. And his right leg sure stayed in those loose ropes, didn't it? like he was making no effort to get free. And how did the rope not become uncoiled, anyway? But... we presume his left leg was injured in some way; all his rustlers seemed to have been taken care of (by boys who had never dealt with that type of thing before haha); and by the strangest coincidence one cut of the rein would put him at the mercy of that horse. And guess who gets to cut it? Even old 4-eyed Dan could see to make that cut without his glasses! Cimmaron got the horse to running, presumably with the same pistol that Wil Andersen had confiscated and told him to "Send me a bill" for it. They owed him justice, and the bill was paid.

I hope they found him later and cut him off from the horse. It isn't fair to the horse to have to drag a dead piece of **** in the wild. It would be the death of the horse.