# Mohawks! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 11, 2000, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mohawks/36498 "2000-10-11T03:22:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mongrel\_8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@mongrel\_8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mongrel_8)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2000, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mohawks/36498/1 "2000-10-11T03:22:28Z")
What exactly is the origin of the mohawk? I was looking at a picture of paratroopers in WWII who had mohawks for good luck. So that predated my idea of when mohawks came about. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2000, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mohawks/36498/2 "2000-10-11T03:27:25Z")
WAG here but i would say from the Mohawk Indians. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2000, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mohawks/36498/3 "2000-10-11T04:09:50Z")
The story goes that the Mohawk Indians wore their hair that way to make it **easier** for their enemies to scalp them. It was as if to say “If you can’t scalp us with our hair like this, you guys must really be pansies.” That’s the way my 7th grade history teacher told it, anyway, but he was full of crap, so I don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2000, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mohawks/36498/4 "2000-10-11T04:27:29Z")
> [@](#): > > Warriors of some tribes would > challenge their enemies by means of a scalp-lock, that is, shaving their heads except > for one long lock of hair (and thereby saying, “I dare you to scalp me.”) Several > centuries later American teenagers in effect challenged their parents’ patience by > similar means, that is, with a so-called mohawk haircut similar to the Indian coiffure. > source: [http://thehistorynet.com/MHQ/articles/1998/fall983\_text.htm](http://thehistorynet.com/MHQ/articles/1998/fall983_text.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2000, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mohawks/36498/5 "2000-10-11T04:45:47Z")
From _A Short Account of the Mohawk Indians_, by Reverend Johannes Megapolensis, Jr., 1644: > [@](#): > > The men have a long lock of hair hanging down, some on one side of the head, and some on both sides. On the top of their heads they have a streak of hair from the forehead to the neck, about the breadth of three fingers, and this they shorten until it is about two or three fingers long, and it stands right on end like a rock’s comb or hog’s bristles; on both sides of this cock’s comb they cut all the hair short, except the aforesaid locks, and they also leave on the bare places here and there small locks, such as are in sweeping-brushes, and then they are in fine array. I don’t know if this is helpful or not. From [Huron Indians](http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07565a.htm): > [@](#): > > Though no hard and fast rule obtained in the tribe as to their head-dress, each adopting the mode that appealed for the nonce to his individual whim, this particular band wore their hair in stiff ridges, extending from forehead to occiput, and separated by closely shaven furrows, suggestive of the bristles on a boar’s head, in French, hure. The French sailors viewed them with amused wonderment, and gave expression to their surprise by exclaiming “Quelle _hure_!” Thereupon the name Huron was coined, and it was later applied indiscriminately to all the nation. Screw the 'do; check out [Fighting Eagle](http://www.atomgroup.org/WAFA_BOTW_FEAGLE.htm)’s earrings.