Facebook Twitter Email
JUNE 23, 2000

James Carrillo, a Cherokee and Crow man residing in Colorado, says the Central Distributing Company told him to cut his ponytail or risk losing his newly obtained job. He refused and according to company policy, which forbids long hair, he cannot work for the company.

Friends and neighbors of Carrillo plan to picket the company. Carrillo is writing a letter to Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R Colo), the Northern Cheyenne who himself has a ponytail.

A lawyer for the Native American Rights Funds, based in Boulder, said employment disputes involving long hair are rare due to increased sensitivity and respect for religious beliefs.

Get the Story:
Ponytail must go, Indian job-seeker told (The Denver Post 6/23)