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Why removing a distinct religious code for Native American military service members will make their needs invisible

July 13, 2026 · 1 min read

(The Conversation) — When the Pentagon cut roughly 180 faiths from its religious affiliation codes, shrinking the list from more than 200 categories to 31 in May 2026, it folded “Native American religion” into the broader category of “ other religion ” – one of many faiths the change pushes out of the military’s view.

As a scholar of Native American and Indigenous Studies , I recognize this kind of change as part of a long-running pattern. Native traditions have repeatedly been acknowledged in principle – named, counted, formally recognized – but weakly protected in practice.

What the codes convey Religious affiliation codes are short entries in a service member’s record in the Pentagon’s central demographics database. They are separate from dog tags , the metal identification tags worn around the neck, on which service members can still list any religion they choose.

A Pentagon spokesperson said the change was meant to fix a bloated system , noting that 82% of religious service members used only a handful of the codes.

The codes serve a real purpose. They let the military estimate how many service members practice a given faith, assign chaplains trained in that…

Source: Religion News Service · Read the full story →

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💬 Comments (5) 🌐 Translate comments

Serge Martin

C’est dommage de noyer « Native American religion » dans un vague « other religion ». Les codes servent à estimer les besoins concrets en aumôniers, comme le dit l’article, et là on rend ces besoins invisibles. J’espère qu’ils garderont quand même la possibilité de noter précisément sur les plaques d’identité.

Anna Parker

It’s a shame they lumped Native American religion into that catch-all “other religion” bucket. The article points out those codes are exactly how the military figures out how many chaplains with the right training are needed, so folding it in really does make the needs invisible. I hope they at least keep letting folks write the specific tradition on the dog tags like before.

Thomas Moreau

Oui, c’est exactement ça : sans un code précis, on ne saura plus combien de soldats ont vraiment besoin d’un aumônier qui connaît les cérémonies amérindiennes, comme les smudges ou les prières avec la sauge. Sur les plaques d’identité, ça reste possible, mais pour l’organisation des services, ça va devenir flou. Espérons qu’ils corrigent vite.

Paul Johnson

Yeah, that “other religion” bucket is basically a black hole for planning anything specific. I remember a guy in my old reserve unit who followed Lakota ways and had a hard enough time getting time off for sweat lodge ceremonies even when the numbers were tracked separately. Keeping the dog tag option is better than nothing, but it won’t help the chaplain corps know how many specialists they actually need.

Xenia Wilson

I agree, Anna – that “other religion” catch-all really does hide the numbers they need for proper chaplain support. My neighbour’s son is in the Army and follows Ojibwe traditions; he’s already had to explain his prayer times twice this year even with the old code. Do you think they might add a separate checkbox just for Native practices down the line?