A National Guard specialist wants to educate others about the cultural significance of Indigenous hair.

RAPIDS CITY, S.D. (KOTA) – For many people, hair is considered a fashion statement or a change in appearance.

For one member of the South Dakota Army National Guard, however, it goes much deeper.

It has long been required that men enlisting in the military keep their hair cut short and kept it up while serving – a pill that Moses Braveheart had a hard time swallowing.

“Even before I signed up, I knew that was the case, I was kind of okay with it, but deep down it was like, you know, I wasn’t okay with it,” Braveheart said. .

A Braveheart Specialist from the Oglala Sioux Tribe joined the North Dakota National Guard in 2020. To join the army, he made a difficult decision: he would have to cut his hair according to security standards.

However, the Pine Ridge native was later given good news.

“It wasn’t until maybe about three years later that I learned there was an exception to the rule,” Braveheart said.

Braveheart first became aware of the possibility of an exception to the hair rule during his 2022 command. He was glad to hear the news considering what his hair was like.

“The only time we cut it or trim it or anything like that is when we lose someone. You know, that would be part of the grieving process. We lose a part of ourselves every time we lose someone close to us, and then we usually burn or cut them up,” Braveheart explained.

His exemption from the rules was approved by the Department of Defense in May 2023, giving him the opportunity to finally grow his hair.

“It was pretty big for me, you know, I had this feeling of joy deep in my stomach and I just shed a little happy tear,” Braveheart said.

During the fight to be expelled from politics, some of the support he received from others played an important role throughout the process.

“One of the requirements was letters of support from other registered members. So, I got some letters from people in the North Dakota National Guard and then I got a letter of support from a spiritual director,” Braveheart said.

After being removed from the endorsement policy, Braveheart is now focusing his attention on training people who want to join the military without any cuts.

“I was reading some of the comments on the Facebook post, not many that I didn’t know about, but not as many people know as you know about the significance of long hair in Native American tribes. So I’m really excited to be able to talk about it,” Braveheart said.

Braveheart transferred to the South Dakota National Guard in 2024 and is looking forward to growing all his hair back.

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