As Native Heritage Month passes, Indigenous voices and stories continue to thrive among our people. Hair, in many cultures, plays an integral role in how it correlates to an individual’s identity. Various tribal communities view hair as a means of strength, a way to showcase your marital status, a nurtured connection tied to your spiritual well-being, and it could even be interpreted as a representation of community.
In my community of the Diné people, being able to wear your hair in a bun, otherwise known as Tsiiyéél, derives from the hairstyle worn by Changing Woman. Upon seeing how much the Glittering World presented challenges, she tied her hair in a bun to ensure she had a sense of self-control and that her thoughts would not come undone.
Native people are between two worlds: a world where our teachings are gifted to us by our specific communities and Western worldviews. Traditional teachings across Indian Country have similar themes of collective identity; we are taught from a young age to be good relatives and give back to the community that raised us. Each person who contributes understands how vital their role is among their peers, yet hair can be viewed similarly.
One strand of hair could not endure much in terms of strength, but collectively, a head of hair could theoretically hold up to 10-15 tons. Throughout our history as Native people, when observing the Boarding school era, the forcefulness and trauma that young children endured when having their hair cut from them is a pain that ripples from generation to generation.
Systemically, this act of cutting a child’s hair was an attempt to uproot them from who they were, as well as the community they so proudly belonged to. The assimilation of Native youth was all a part of a larger plan to try and create a disruption in the way that children would operate among their people when sent home. When children got the chance to go home, their grandparents were faced with not understanding a single word their little one told them, which brought a wave of pain across each tribal nation.
Our hair holds much more than the eye can see; under all the split ends and tangles, it holds memories of our lived emotional ties and experiences on our daily commutes. Today, there is no hesitation when it comes to elders encouraging the youth to wear their hair long. In August of 2023, Moses Brave Heart began a hair regrowth journey after receiving an exemption to policy by the Department of Defense.
According to a report from the Lakota Times, “In uniform there has definitely been some with an old mindset that staying disciplines means that men should have short hair in uniform, and sometimes the looks could push someone to give up and be like ‘ok, I don’t want to do this anymore,’ but I just turn it all into noise because I’m strong in my beliefs and culture,’” said Brave Heart.
There is courage in how we advocate for ourselves, especially in predominately white spaces where there is very little to no representation of Native people. We walk in two worlds, where we grasp our spiritual connection to all relatives on this earth, not limited to people but also animals, plants, land, and water. As Indigenous people, we have come a long way in ways that reflect our youth embracing the heritage they inherently deserve to express.
