TSA agent accused of snapping Native American traveler’s braids and saying ‘giddy-up’

A Native American traveler is accusing a TSA agent of snapping her hair braids like reins, laughing and saying “giddy-up.”

Transportation Security Administration and airport officials have apologized, media outlets report.

Tara Houska, an attorney and Indigenous rights activist who is Ojibwe, tweeted that she was walking through security at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport when the agent told her she needed to check her hair.

That’s when the agent pulled her braids and snapped them like reins, Houska tweeted.

“It was dehumanizing and just really disrespectful,” Houska told KARE. “It was kind of humiliating to be honest, as a person but also as an indigenous person.”

Within an hour of Houska tweeting about the incident, the airport responded with an apology.

TSA officials have also apologized and spoken with Houska after an investigation, The Associated Press reported.

“TSA holds its employees to the highest standards of professional conduct and any type of improper behavior is taken seriously,” the statement to the AP said.

According to the TSA, travelers often ask the agency about patting down hair. Officials say they check hair that alarms for a possible explosive or potentially obstructs a prohibited item.

“It was a very uncomfortable situation,” Houska told the (Minneapolis) Star Tribune. “My issue is not with her patting down my hair. My issue is with her acting like I am a horse. I am a woman.”

This story was originally published January 16, 2020 at 2:09 PM with the headline "TSA agent accused of snapping Native American traveler’s braids and saying ‘giddy-up’."