“This should be a simple case,” Goldstein said. “DOC has no reason to treat a Native American who wants to wear a headband to express his religious faith any differently than it treats Muslims and Jews who want to wear kufis and yarmulkes to express their faith.”

Labinger said, “His efforts to obtain simple religious items to practice his faith should not consume four years and require a federal court lawsuit. Fortunately, federal law and the First Amendment require that even in prison, the custodians do not get to dictate what is an accepted religion and how it should be practiced.”

Formerly known as Brian Keith Brownell, Pawochawog-Mequinosh filed a petition in 2021 in state court to change his name to express his Apache heritage and faith, and the petition was granted a year later.

“I just want to be able to practice my religion and to be able to use the artifacts for my religion without unjustified restrictions, like other religions are permitted to do,” he said in a statement. “I don’t feel that this is too much to ask for.”

J.R. Ventura, chief of information and public relations officer for the Department of Corrections, said, “We just became aware of the lawsuit, and we are looking into it. Any concerns will be addressed once we have an opportunity to read it and discuss its claims.”

But generally speaking, Ventura said, “Per our policy, all inmates have the right to freely exercise their religious beliefs and liberty of worship. The exercise of this right, however, may be restricted for legitimate security reasons. People’s safety is the top priority here.”

He said the Department of Corrections “accommodates numerous forms of worship and religious practices, like religious dietary preferences, religious services, personal contact with accredited representatives of their faith, deliver sermons, and more.”

Pawochawog-Mequinosh is serving a life sentence for first-degree sexual assault, with an additional 20-year consecutive sentence for the same charge, and he had previously served time for child pornography, according to the Department of Corrections. He is now confined in the John J. Moran Medium Security Facility, in Cranston.

Since 2019, Pawochawog-Mequinosh has sought to obtain and wear an Apache headband in the prison to express his religious faith, the lawsuit states.

But the department has denied those requests, the suit says, because his religion is designated as “Pagan/Wiccan” in the department’s data management system, and Apache headbands aren’t an approved religious item for individuals with that designation. Also, the department has told him Apache headbands have not been approved as a religious item in any state prison.

The suit says the Department of Corrections requires inmates to designate that they belong to one religious category from among these choices: “Catholic,” “Jewish,” “Muslim,” “Pagan/Wiccan,” and “other.” The department does not offer a religious designation for those who follow Native American religious traditions, and those designations determine what religious items inmates may obtain, the suit says.

Pawochawog-Mequinosh chose the “Pagan/Wiccan” designation because it allows him to obtain rune stones and tarot cards, which are also an important part of his religious beliefs. If he chose the “other” category, as some officials suggested he do, he’d lose his right to have tarot cards and rune stones and would still likely be denied the right to wear a headband, the suit states.

Native American headbands are recognized as a religious item by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, according to the suit.

The lawsuit claims the Department of Corrections has violated his right to the free exercise of religion as protected by the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act. That law bars states from imposing any substantial burden on a prisoner’s exercise of religion unless it furthers a “compelling interest” and is the least restrictive means available.

Pawochawog-Mequinosh filed grievances with the prison administration four times, asking to obtain a headband, but his lawyers said he received “Kafkaesque” responses, including rejections saying that he did not follow procedures but failing to explain what he had done improperly.

The suit seeks a court order allowing Pawochawog-Mequinosh to “obtain and wear an Apache headband, without giving up his ability to practice other aspects of his sincere religious beliefs, including by possessing and using rune stones and tarot cards.”

The suit also asks the court to issue an injunction ordering the Department of Corrections to “revise its policies and procedures to allow individuals whose religious beliefs and practices do not fit within RIDOC’s system of religious designations to exercise their sincere religious beliefs and practices even when those beliefs and practices do not align with the beliefs and practices that RIDOC has approved for the religious designations.”

Edward Fitzpatrick can be reached at edward.fitzpatrick@globe.com. Follow him @FitzProv.