Gyasi Ross: Long hair, short hair, it’s all about American Indian hair

Jodi Rave Spotted Bear

Jodi Rave Spotted Bear

Founder & Editor in Chief

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Gyasi Ross, an entrepreneur from the Blackfeet nation, has delivered yet another column. One thing I’m learning about Ross is he likes to write and he’s never short on words. So here’s a snippet from his latest column that he’s posted on his new blog, “Things About Skins.” Note: Ross makes me miss my own column writing. I am, however, extremely busy with life, including graduate school, a two-year old niece, a radio show on KBGA — it airs Friday for the first time — and a book on the management of Indian land. I have more going on, too, but that’s another story. In short, life is good, busy, but definitely good.

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Now a few words from Ross:

I wonder about the perception(s) of hair within our Native societies. I remember in college, when a Native had long hair, there was a presumption that the long-haired Native was “traditional;” I think that there’s usually a perception that a Native with long hair IS, in fact, somehow more Native (or Nativer) than a short-haired Native. In that school context, sometimes the long-haired Natives in school would play into that perception that they were, in fact, “traditional” so that they could spew off some pseudo-religious babble and make the giggling little hippie girls think that were “deep.”

Interestingly, the vast majority of the older “traditional” people that I know tend to have very neatly cut hair. Of course, some have braids, and some have mullets—business up front, party in the back. Many women have the hair hanging down and parted in the middle, straight out of a Cher video, some of the serious “rez” bangs and some have more contemporary hairstyles. Point is, there is no one style—fortunately—that defines Natives. Still, in some people’s eyes, the hair makes the Native.

To read the rest of the column, go to Gyasi Ross’s blog.

Jodi Rave

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