By C1 Staff
NEW YORK — An inmate who wants to hang on to his hairstyle is seeking the approval of a local Cherokee tribe to certify him as a Native American.
The New York Post reports that Robert Sioleski, 58, who is serving 24 years for throwing acid in his stepdaughter’s face in 2003, has been trying to get the Cherokee Nation to recognize him as a citizen so he can keep his “tribal mullet” hairstyle.
Sioleski claims his grandmother, who was killed in 1933, was a Cherokee, but the Nation has ignored his requests.
Sioleski complained that the Nation is only ignoring him because “they want cash, I don’t have cash I’m poor,” he wrote in a lawsuit to gain a blood test to prove his nationality.
He complains in the suit that corrections officers keep disciplining him for his hairstyle, and asks that a judge order the blood test.
The Cherokee Nation, who didn’t respond to a request for comment, does not require a blood test for citizenship.