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

“In order to be successful and have a better life, you have to get off the reservation,” South Dakota National Guard Specialist Brave Heart told Task & Purpose. “You have to move away from home. That’s what many people do. So where are all the models? It’s as simple as seeing a young native driving a nice car. I want to give younger children that hope. For example, “if he could do it, so could I.”

After high school, Brave Heart knew he wanted to start a career in law enforcement and saw the military as a path to that career. But wanting to stay close to home, he decided joining the National Guard would be the best way to go.

“You can get benefits and what not, and still volunteer for deployments,” he said. “But my goal was to be a good role model, giving back and showing other Native Americans that they can have a good life. That’s why I insisted on this accommodation.”

Brave Heart started applying for an accommodation in October 2022 and was approved in May 2023. She has spent the year since raising her.

Under the accommodation unit, which has been extended to a handful of Native soldiers and Air Force aviators, Brave Heart is held to the Army’s standards of feminine grooming in terms of hair length and style. He may also wear traditional Sioux headdresses for army portraits, including an eagle feather.

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

“I get the odd look and I expected the look because it’s not normal to see a man in uniform with long hair. I see it as an opportunity to tell them about our culture,” Brave Heart said. “We see it as an extension of our spirit, is what I always tell them. The only time we would stop it 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 burn it or bury it.”

Brave Heart said the Army’s grooming standards came about when his mother’s brother died a few months ago, when his hair was still short — too short, he says, even to be ceremonially cut for his uncle’s death.

When he joined the Army National Guard in 2020, Brave Heart said, he gave little thought to the demands of his hair.

“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 has to be,” he said.

He spent four years with the North Dakota Army National Guard before transferring to the 235th Guard Military Police Company in South Dakota in April.

He started looking into a religious exemption after reading about Connor Crawn, an Air Force security forces aviator. who received a religious accommodation for his Mohawk nation inheritance.

“I contacted him,” Brave Heart said. “You know, if the Air Force could do it, why not?”

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He also credits a fellow North Dakota Guardsman, Capt. Nathan Johnson, with helping him overcome lodging.

“The thing that really pushed me was that I wanted to be in uniform and also express my culture, and long hair is important in all Native American tribes,” Brave Heart said in a statement. “So being in the military and being told, ‘Be all you can be,’ well, that’s a part of me, and Captain Johnson was really excited and supportive to help me achieve that.”

When word of his accommodation spread on social mediahe said, there was a predictable amount of negative comments, mostly from soldiers of past eras. A voice, however, surprised him.

“I had an uncle who was in the Marines,” Brave Heart said. “He was one of them who kind of pushed me on it. He said, you know, “you should be disciplined!” And he was one of my role models growing up.”

But he has no regrets.

“I just turn everything into noise because I’m strong in my beliefs and my culture,” Brave Heart said.

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