Honoring Tiny DeCory: A warrior for Lakota Youth

PINE RIDGE – The Oglala Lakota Nation has lost one of its fiercest protectors. Yvonne “Tiny” DeCory — youth advocate, cultural teacher, and the heart behind the BEAR Program — walked on after a lifetime spent fighting for the lives of Lakota children. Her passing leaves a silence across Pine Ridge, but her legacy continues to echo in every young person she lifted, every family she comforted, and every community she helped heal.

Tiny was not a leader because she sought recognition. She was a leader because she refused to look away. For decades, she stood on the front lines of the youth suicide epidemic on Pine Ridge, confronting a crisis that many outside the reservation never understood and too many inside carried quietly. She met that crisis with compassion, humor, cultural grounding, and a relentless determination to save lives.

She co-founded the BEAR Program — Be Excited About Reading / Be Excited About Reaching — a grassroots movement that became far more than its name. BEAR was Tiny’s way of reaching young people where they were, offering them hope, laughter, and Lakota teachings at a time when many felt they had none. She traveled from school to school, community to community, carrying messages of resilience, belonging, and cultural pride. She reminded young people that they mattered, that they were sacred, and that their lives had purpose.

Her work was not done from behind a desk. Tiny showed up — in classrooms, in gymnasiums, at wakes, at crisis scenes, in living rooms where families were grieving. She showed up when the phone rang in the middle of the night. She showed up when a child needed a safe adult to talk to. She showed up when a community needed someone to speak truth with love. She showed up because she believed that every Lakota child deserved to grow up, to dream, and to live.

Tiny’s impact reached far beyond Pine Ridge. She became a national voice for Native youth suicide prevention, featured in the documentary “The Bears on Pine Ridge,” which aired on PBS. The film captured what so many already knew: Tiny was a force of nature. She carried the weight of a crisis on her shoulders, yet she never lost her humor, her warmth, or her belief that healing was possible.

She did not walk this path alone. For more than a decade, she worked alongside the late Eileen Janis, another powerful Oglala Lakota advocate. Together, they formed a partnership rooted in love for their people and a shared determination to protect the next generation. Their work saved lives — countless lives — and changed the way the nation understands Native youth mental health.

But beyond the programs, the presentations, and the national recognition, Tiny was a grandmother, a mentor, and a relative. Her family describes her as someone who “changed the world with the love and compassion she led with every day,” someone who “fiercely fought for the youth and underprivileged,” and someone whose impact “will be felt forever.” Those words are not exaggeration. They are truth.

Tiny lived her life the way Lakota women have always led — with courage, generosity, and an unwavering commitment to her people. She carried the teachings of her ancestors into every room she entered. She believed in the power of culture to heal. She believed in the strength of community. And she believed, above all, in the sacredness of Lakota children.

Her passing is a profound loss. But her legacy is not gone. It lives in the BEAR Program, in the youth she saved, in the families she comforted, and in the generations who will grow up stronger because she walked this earth.

Tiny DeCory gave everything she had to her people. Now it is our turn to carry her work forward — with the same love, the same courage, and the same belief that every Lakota child deserves to live.

May her journey be beautiful. May her memory be a blessing. And may we honor her by protecting the children she fought so hard for.

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