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Mohawk (or less extreme faux hawk) – A hairstyle in which most of the hair flows along the center of the head, it surged in popularity in the early 1970s and has been featured at countless fashion week runway shows since. Seen – adopting the traditional hairstyle of the indigenous people. Of course, this is not a problem unique to the Mohicans. Things can start to wobble with cultural appropriation when a group other than the original creator uses something from a particular culture without acknowledging its origin. Unlike other black and white examples (such as braided hairstyles and dia de los muertos makeup), the topic of Mohawk hairstyles is a little more complicated.
Whether it’s the incomplete education about Native American history offered in school curricula, or just general naivety, many people don’t know the true origins of the Mohawk hairstyle. “The Mohawk you see today is not a historically accurate Mohawk,” says Columbia University’s Dr. Michael Wittgen, professor of history at the Center for Ethnicity and Race Studies, told POPSUGAR.
History has been misrepresented in several ways. For one thing, it was actually the present-day Pawnee of Nebraska who traditionally wore the Mohawk hairstyle, rather than the Mohawks of present-day New York. Although he is recognized as the sole wearer of the , he actually had a slightly different hairstyle.
“There’s almost something called a scalp lock,” says Wittgen. They removed all hair except the very back part of the crown, and “the rest of the head was unshaven and plucked out.” They also reportedly adorned this tress in a braid, but it did not extend from the front to the back of the head like the hairstyles we know today.
“The Mohawk you’re thinking of is a white man’s creation that ‘played’ Native Americans.
They also didn’t call it Mohawk. “It was a name given to us by outsiders,” he says. In historical documents, English speakers often called it a topknot, but Hollywood branded the hairstyle by the name we know it today. It’s actually a white man’s creation that “played” Native Americans. ”
It first appeared in Hollywood in the 1939 film Drums Along the Mohawk and the popular 1985 film Vision Quest, and has appeared in countless Western films in between. In these films, actors playing members of the Mohican tribe wore this front-to-back pointy Mohawk hairstyle, helping to spread this misinformation. can also be seen in
Philip J. DeLoria, now a history professor at Harvard University,’s book “Playing Indian” explores the history of white Americans as they misappropriated elements of indigenous culture, which in turn shaped their national identity. . “There is a huge tradition in American pop culture that begins with the revolutionary era of people ‘playing’ Native Americans,” he says Witgen. “They want to be destructive.”
This idea of it being anti-establishment also helped the hairstyle pick up in the 70s by the time punk rock. ,” says Nikki Apostolou, Indigenous digital creator. “This style inspired the hair of ‘Taxi Driver’ in 1976.” has lifted the ban that prevents them from practicing their religion and culture.
Image Source: Everett Collection
With all this in mind, it’s a little easier to understand the intricacies of whether to wear a Mohawk or a Fauxhawk in today’s society. “It’s not an outright appropriation because the indigenous people themselves share this style among many tribes,” says Apostollow. “What becomes cultural appropriation is when you wear it.” For example, if it was part of a costume, or was used to ridicule indigenous peoples,” that’s exactly how the whitewashed hairstyle came about.
Apostolou believes educating oneself about the tumultuous origins of modern hairstyles can go a long way. and 80s punk culture,” she says. Just as we can recognize and respect what we do..”
