Native American Soldier Gets OK to Wear Long Hair, Feather to Honor Heritage

Moses Brave Heart grew up on the Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota, where he says positive role models were hard to find. Now, he wants to be that role model and hopes a religious accommodation to grow his hair long in the tradition of his heritage as an Oglala Sioux will help him spread that message.

The mindset is in order to be successful and have a better life, you got to move away from the reservation,” Brave Heart, a specialist in the South Dakota National Guard, told Task & Purpose. “You gotta move away from home. That’s what a lot of people do. Then where’s all the role models? It’s as simple as if you see a young native driving a nice car. I want to give younger kids that hope. Like, ‘if he could do it, I could do it, too.’”

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Brave Heart began pushing for an accommodation in October of 2022 and it was approved in May 2023. He’s spent the year since growing it out.

Under the accommodation, which has been extended to a handful of Native soldiers and Air Force airmen, Brave Heart is subject to Army female grooming standards in length and style of hair. He can also wear traditional Sioux head decorations for Army portraits, including an eagle feather.

Sioux add feathers for significant life events. Brave Heart wears one, which he received when he graduated from high school.

“I get the weird looks, and I expected looks because it’s not normal to see a male in uniform with long hair. I look at it as an opportunity to tell them about our culture,” Brave Heart said. “We view it as an extension of our spirit, is what I always tell them. The only time we would cut it off is if we lose someone close to us. It would be part of the grieving process to cut it off. And what we do with it is either to burn it or burial.”

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