Lt. Elgin: Spivy! You bash that prisoner one more time, I'll put those shackles on you.
Major Fambrough: Sir knight? I've just pissed in my pants... and nobody can do anything about it.
John Dunbar: The strangeness of this life cannot be measured: in trying to produce my own death, I was elevated to the status of a living hero.
John Dunbar: Dunbar, not Dumb Bear.
John Dunbar: I am Lieutenant John J. Dunbar and this is my post.
John Dunbar: Many times I'd felt alone, but until this afternoon I'd never felt completely lonely.
John Dunbar: Guns would make one warrior like two.
John Dunbar: How come we haven't seen any buffalo?
Timmons: Can't figure the stinking buffalo. Sometimes you don't see them for days, and sometimes they're out there as thick as curls on a whore.
John Dunbar: What about Indians?
Timmons: Indians? Goddamn Indians you'd just as soon not see, unless the bastards are dead. They're nothing but thieves and beggars.
Answer: He shaved it as he began spending more time with the Lakota. Native American tribes rarely accepted facial hair. As you can see, none of the other Lakota men have any. He also grew his hair longer as an abandonment of his military lifestyle.