‘Keep the medicine going’: Polson teacher inspires boys to wear hair long

Rod First Strike, cultural specialist in Polson, is encouraging young boys to wear their hair long. 

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In 2021, when Rod First Strike was working as a cultural specialist at Linderman Elementary in Polson, he noticed a lot of kindergarten and first-grade boys were being teased for wearing their hair long.

Hair holds significance in Indigenous cultures. It’s seen as a source of strength, connecting Native Americans to their ancestors. And often, when a loved one dies, Native people may choose to cut their hair short to symbolize the profound loss. Some say long hair is a sign of resilience, as Native people were forced to cut their hair short as a form of assimilation in government-run boarding schools. And in some places, long hair remains controversial. A network of charter schools in North Carolina has a policy prohibiting male students from wearing long hair, and the Native American Rights Fund intervened, urging the school to “permanently remove the discriminatory and outdated assimilationist policy.”

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