Indian soldier allowed to wear long hair to honor heritage

Moses Braveheart grew up on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, where he says positive role models are hard to come by. Now he wants to be that role model and hopes that a religious device that allows him to grow his hair long in the tradition of his Oglala Sioux heritage will help him spread that message.

“The thinking is, in order to be successful and have a better life, you have to leave the reservation,” Braveheart, a specialist with the South Dakota National Guard, told Task & Purpose. “You will have to leave home. Many people do this. Then where are all the role models? It’s as simple as seeing a young native driving a nice car. I want to give younger children that hope. Like, “If he can do it, so can I.”

After graduating from high school, Braveheart knew he wanted to pursue a career in law enforcement and viewed military service as a path to that career. But wanting to stay close to home, he decided joining the National Guard was the best route.

“You can get benefits and more and still volunteer for deployment,” he said. “But my whole goal was to be a good role model by going back and showing other Native Americans that I could live a good life. That’s why I insisted on this housing.”

Braveheart began pushing for the housing in October 2022, and it was approved in May 2023. It’s been a year since he raised it.

As part of the placement, which has been expanded to several Native soldiers and Air Force pilots, Braveheart is subject to Army grooming standards for women’s hair length and style. He may also wear traditional Sioux head ornaments for army portraits, including an eagle feather.

Sioux add feathers to significant life events. Braveheart wears one that he received when he graduated from high school.

“They look at me strangely, and I expected such looks because it is not normal to see a man in a uniform with long hair. I see this as an opportunity to teach them about our culture,” Braveheart said. “We see it as an extension of our spirit, that’s what I always tell them. The only time we can cut it off is if we lose someone close to us. Cutting it off would be part of the grieving process. And we will either burn him or bury him.”

Braveheart said the Army’s grooming standards began when his mom’s brother passed away a few months ago, while his hair was still short—too short, he said, to even be ceremoniously cut to mark his uncle’s passing.

When he joined the National Guard in 2020, Braveheart said he thought little about the hair requirements.

“I knew I wanted to go into law enforcement and the military, and at the time I thought, well, I can only do this with short hair, and that’s the way it should be,” he said.

He spent four years in the North Dakota Army National Guard and transferred to the South Dakota Guard’s 235th Military Police Company in April.

He began considering a religious refusal after reading about Connor Crown, an Air Force security pilot. who received religious shelter for his Mohawk nation inheritance.

“I reached out to him,” Braveheart said. “You know, if the Air Force could do it, why not?”

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He also credits fellow North Dakota Guardsman Capt. Nathan Johnson for helping promote the facility.

“What really pushed me was that I wanted to wear a uniform and express my culture at the same time, and long hair has a lot of significance in all Native American tribes,” Braveheart said in a press release. “So when I was in the Army and they told me, ‘Be all you can be,’ that’s a part of me, and Capt. Johnson was very excited and supportive of helping me achieve that.”

When distributing information about his housing on social networksThere was a predictable amount of negative comments, he said, mostly from soldiers of past eras. However, one voice surprised him.

“I had an uncle who was in the Marines,” Braveheart said. “He was one of the people who gave me some pushback on this. He was like, you know, “You should stay disciplined!” And he was one of my role models growing up.”

But he doesn’t regret anything.

“I just turn it all into noise because I’m strong in my beliefs and culture,” Braveheart said.

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