In which I spout some baseless theories about the Mohawk hairstyle. Take everything I say here with a grain of salt, I have little to no confidence in most of it.
Man, conflicting emotions over here. On the one hand, thank you for the well researched and thoughtful monologue. But wow does that ever trigger a bunch of PTSD for me. I was a kid in 1990 during the Oka crisis. My uncles were on the barricades, my cousins almost got run over by a Leopard tank when they were playing in the ditch outside their house, I went grocery shopping with my gramma on a speedboat across the St-Lawrence while tailed by CAF helicopters with gunners leering out the doors, I used to go fishing with a guy who tossed a Diemaco C7 rifle into the seaway during the failed invasion at the island, the hate-filled mobs, the burning effigies, soldiers searching our luggage when we left with the convoy through whiskey trench, knives pulled on me at school as one of the last remaining kids from the reserve attending french school. All my friends shaved their heads with Mohawk haircuts that summer and for the next several thereafter. But i was an outsider among outsiders. Not only was I a pale-skinned C-31, my family were part of the JWs and my tyrant abusive father under no circumstances would have allowed that haircut. I yearned for it like you would not believe. And now male pattern baldness. Cheers.
Funfact: In Germany we call the Mohawk haircut an "Irokesenschnitt" which means "Iroquois cut". I don't know the origin story of this name though, so, it's just a little titbit.
"Iroquois" is a colonial name that gets applied to the cultural group the Mohawk are a part of. The political structure of the "Iroquois Confederacy" (Haudenosaunee) comes up in Western political theory occasionally (the US Constitution was based on their systems, though that's rarely acknowledged); Iroquois is thus one of the Indigenous terms that has some recognition globally, where Mohawk specifically might not.
@@renaigh I've always been told Iroquois is an Algonquin word which means snake and that the Algonquin use the word snake to refer to their enemies. This makes sense as the Hodinöhsöni and Algonquin were enemies.
An anthropology teacher once told me something along the lines of “don’t worry too much about finding an ancient cultural explanation for something when it can be explained just as well by looking at the 1970s.” I think that holds well with the explanations from the 1940s. Modern culture is modern.
A couple years back, I remember hearing that one of the veterans in that WW2 photograph recut his hair into that mohawk! He was in a wheelchair and I think he just got over covid! If memory serves....
I think the warrior's hair style has a simple explanation. Most head wounds will be inflicted on the front or sides of your head so if you remove the hair there it makes it easier to treat them.
The mourning hair thing is really interesting. It not only gives people a good long time to come to terms with someone's passing, but it also puts something like an in-built timer for it so you don't get stuck in grief for too long. It's compassionate and pragmatic
Reminds me of how us Scandinavians latched on to the inaccurate idea of the horned 'viking helmet' as well as exaggerated clichés about mead (Which wasn't drunk as often as a lot of people think). In many situations you'll find Scandinavians trying to latch onto ideas of 'vikingness' as a way to feel kinship and patriotism, just look at pictures of us at football games and you'll see people wearing horned helmets painted with their country's colors. At this point most of us know it's inaccurate, but it definitely ingrained itself in our subconscious. How a people is portrayed by outsiders can definitely influence the people's own view of themselves, and since your people are portrayed so rarely, so inaccurately and often so disparagingly, it wouldn't surprise me if one of your theories is correct.
I think it's belived that the Wagner's famous operas created the Horned helmet = Viking thing, but the actual horned helmet wearing peoples were proto-indo-european horseman from the steepes and their horns were more tubes with feathers.
Reading a book about the Powhatan it was mentioned (from an English first hand account I believe) that the Powhatan men would keep their hair shaved down one side, long on the other so their hair wouldn’t interfere with a bow pulled to the ear (the Extant Powhatan bows from the time period are like five foot eight) but it didn’t mention casual hair. The only place where I’ve ever seen it portrayed is in the Disney animated Pocahontas.
@@MalcolmPL Ive never seen one outside Disney. Mostly the portrayals of Powhatans are copies of the 1585 Algonquin sketch. Do you remember where you saw the photos?
Pinterest, the one off the top of my head was a portrait from the seventeen hundreds. And I saw another one that was a really ugly sketch with no date.
My thought about the wearing of a scalp lock, perhaps wrongly, is that it would act as a challenge to the enemy- daring them to come and take their scalp.
This is very interesting. I think your point on pan-Indianism is basically right. More than likely they didn't get the idea to do the "Mohawk" from one specific source, but from a vague amalgamation of the Hollywood Indian that existed in the memories. It's interesting that, if I understood it correctly, the use of the "Mohawk" by actual Mohawks in WWII inspired the name.
Pamunkey were the heads of the Confederacy, and they lived on Virginia’s Eastern coast line. They had a reserve set aside for them in 1676 and It’s in a pretty good place, since it’s on the river, and a lot of people live off it to this day.
I did not know that! Thanks for sharing, I grew up in Virginia and loved the history, always wondered what happened to the natives there. We always hear about the non- East Coast natives, glad to hear that some survived on the coast.
Thanks for being a creator and sharing your insights. Knowledge should be chased into the shadows of the sunset and then given to everyone with the morning sunrise.
the warrior haircut you mentioned is also present across the ocean, the manchu were famous for having extra long queues and made it mandatory during their rule in china, the samurai had a hairstyle that also exaggerated the tail, the cossacks had a similar one to yours named chupryna but a different style of wearing it in caucasus, especially among the circassians and the abkhaz, warriors by trade and other men who went to war would also leave a portion of their hair at the back and shave the rest, when they decide to retire from warfare they would cut their hair in a ceremony and return to "civilian" life perhaps it was a way of having hair but not getting it in the way while fighting in close quarters
I visited the Delaware region as a child and picked up a book, Dickon Amongst the Lenape, it was a wonderful book (to me) I forget who wrote it. He was a historian in , I think, the 1930s and part of the book talks about Dickon being adopted into the tribe. Part of this is about hairstyles and making a head piece of turkey beards and dyed deer fur. If you could find a copy it might be interesting for you. I know little of First Nations people, but your videos are very interesting. Thanks
Apparently, the paratrooper who came up with the idea for the mohawks and face paint was Jake McNiece. He was a part of a demolition crew in the 101st Airborne known as the Filthy Thirteen, grew up in Oklahoma, and was part Choctaw. Funny.
There is at least one good video about his life and accomplishments on RUclips. Might be SimpleHistory . Anywho, it was a camaraderie thing for them he thought up that day.
I came across your video while trying to find out how to shave a mohawk on myself. Thanks for this information. I found it interesting and your voice very soothing and calming. I have subscribed
I really appreciate your thoughts in this video. I had a mohawk hairstyle in high school I guess because I wanted to be different. Now, at age 32 I cut my hair back into a mohawk because I want to re-connect with the younger me that was daring enough to be different. To me, it enhances confidence. I stumbled across this video while searching for its origins, and I'm glad I did. You mentioned the Coeur d'Alene reservation; I was about to move to Coeur d'Alene city for a job just a week ago... but that fell through. I LOVE the area though.
"Mohawks" and "fauxhawks" were soooo common in the early 2000s when I was in elementary school. I remember being kinda confused and thinking "dude that's not a Mohawk-exclusive style--I've seen Mvskokee and Chickashaw portraits with that hair--it's warrior hair and you shouldn't be wearing it before you've earned it!" Most of my classmates didn't even know "Mohawk" was an indigenous nation, though, so trying to explain that was an exercise in futility (and my first major encounter with cultural appropriation). That being said, there are some really irksome anthropologists who insist my nation, the Chahta (Choctaw), didn't exist before 1700 because we don't come up by name in colonial records--but the colonial records mention this otherwise nonexistent group of people who lived in our homelands who's name would roughly translate to "the long haired people" in Mvskokee... Chahta were notable for wearing their hair full and long much later than basically every other nation around us in the Southeast. Apparently, that distinction is so old and so notable that most of the nations around us called us "longhairs" because of it! The style you outline in this video was eventually adopted by some in the 1800s, but I think it was partly a reaction to assimilationist pressures (it was more in tune with the militant resistance of Tecumseh to wear the partly-shaved warrior look). After Removal, I know there were many who had European style cuts in the front and sides, but kept a long braid from the top-back of their head--an adaptation of this style.There are still a lot of Chahta boys today who have close-cut hair, minus a braid that comes from the crown of the head. Some Chahtas with long hair do an undercut on the right--this hairstyle is understood to have origins in keeping one's hair out of their bowstring. I figure there were several ways of arranging hair that communicated significant things, but colonization and boarding schools wiped most of that out. I grew up being told long hair was federally protected for Indigenous folx, but it wasn't worth singling yourself out and constantly having to fight over it with schools/employers, so few Chahta men grew their hair long any more. I keep my hair long, and am taken aback how even now I'll get flack for it from random strangers who think they're entitled to share their opinion of *my hair.*
Thank you so much for your thesis on this subject. Very interesting objective you have. I love finding channels like this. A true gem to go through. Thank you for sharing. 🙏
Now I don't know if the word already existed in German during WW2, but at least since the Punk movement hit Germany in the late 70's, most Germans would call this hairstyle "Irokese".
So many perspectives to consider in this matter although for the Airborne soldiers I do think it was a matter of yes we're willing to die for our country and people but also Heritage patriotism and psychological warfare
i genuinely find many of the customs of the haudenosaunee people to be very compelling. maybe that has to do with the "mystical noble savage" tropes that i, as a white person raised in america, was brought up with but i think that's probably not the case. i do not think that there are such things as savage or civilized cultures. but that's not to say that they are all the same. the great thing about humans is how diverse our norms can be. it's truly wonderful. the haudenausonee and other american indians had a huge impact on our modern world. pretty much the entirety of european egalitarian philosophy stems from them and not the european enlightenment thinkers that are commonly credited. i appreciate very much that you feel comfortable sharing your experience and knowledge of your people's culture with us. thank you.
Ive heard some people who do Mediterranean/european history talk about the diference between a Warrior as being someone who in time of war will pick up arms for their faction (be it tribe, town, city etc) vs Soldiers who's profession it is to conduct war and train specifically for it even when at peace. Not sure that it applies here but i thpught it an interesting discussion point
Many groups north of China did similar things with their hair to what the Native Americans seem to have done. The Manchu Que would be a good example but most other tribes in the region did similar things.
If the hair scalping is about power, it makes sense that they would PLUCK the hair instead of shaving it, because if you shave it, there is always still some hair left to take. Also, many stone-age civilizations across the globe have pain-rituals for initiating young men, so it could have something to do with that, too. And might also explain why an experienced king like Peter Brand could afford to grow his hair back. Maybe he was so sure of his fighting abilities that he was daring people to take his scalp.
Very white Albertan here and I remembered learning about the Mohawk people when we studied the Haudenasaunee comfederacy. I always thought it was a coincidence that the hairstyle had the same name as the band. Thanks for telling the actual history because I could've just gone through life without this knowledge.
I'm curious to hear the thoughts of a first nations person on the traditional haircut of the Ukrainian Cossacks, it too served to communicate an important status and hearing you talk about this is already making me draw some comparison between the two, thanks for the info!
looks ok. not to my personal taste but probably looks nice in full cossack regalia. very often specialized haircuts suffer when they are juxtaposed with more modern/less formal clothing, the one exception being among wartime soldiers because it's hard to criticize how someone looks when you know they're living much harder than you are and getting shelled/shot/monthly dysentery.
Malcolm She gom - Very well done. I have always had the same thoughts about the Mohawk haircut that you have brought to light here. I came across the plucking out of hair by early accounts of whites captured by Iroquois Indians such as James Smith who was captured by the Mohawk at the opening of the French and Indian war down in Pennsylvania. His book is a great read. He lived with the Mohawks in the Ohio country for like 4 years. He mentions at one point certain Mohawks were enemies to some other Mohawks in the Ohio country. He goes into detail how they lived and survived in the winter. Anyway you probably know about this. One other thought -James Smith mentions the Mohawk had three braids after they plucked the hair out do you think thats why Mohawks have the three Eagle Feathers in the Gustowas headress? Thanks for your awesome videos.
I’ve only read bits and pieces of that book, never got around to reading it properly. As to the three braids, I read that somewhere and it’s reasonable, but I don’t have any real opinion beyond that.
There are people around who know something about "warriors" first hand. All over the world those people shave their heads for very down to earth practical reasons: - Wound attendance will be easier. - Hygiene in the field will be easier. - Head cover or protection doesn't go easy with too long hair. - Hand to hand combat doesn't go well with too long hair.
As a kid whats called a Mowhawk used to be called a Mohican that's England in the 1970's and punk Rock and Taxi Driver film,Robert De Nero's part, Travis Bickle ?I think that's the name,yeah,so Mohican.
One thought that came to me while watching was that if you were scalped and survived, then you would likely only be able to grow hair on the back of your head anyway. Perhaps this kind of hair style might have originally not been intentional, but was the only hair option left for someone who had survived the great hardship of a scalping, thus becoming associated with tough fighters (Though I don't really know much about the details or context of scalping, so I might be spouting nonsense here).
A year late but i wanted to say, great video, thank you. Total blind guess, but maybe a short hair style was popular among the warriors because long hair would be a handle on your head during hand to hand combat and thus was a disadvantage
Thanks for the video, I'm thinking it was just a hairstyle that was used by different tribes and just ended up getting stuck with the mohawk people because of the name. The hairstyle was also use by the meshika people's Elite Warriors the "mohawk" on top and then a ponytail on the back.
I don’t know if you can make a good razor from stone. Even the best ones I’ve seen have an uneven edge, which might gauge the skin if you applied enough pressure to shave. This is a question for a skilled knapper.
@@MalcolmPL You can make a straight, extremely sharp blade using something called either prismatic flaking or blade core flaking. I don't know how to do it, but in theory you strike a near 90-degree edge of a large core and it will run a long, very sharp, straight flake off. You can then just keep repeating the processes going around the core. This is how the macahuitl blades of many Mesoamerican cultures were made - they were much sharper, thinner, and more even, so they worked better than a lot of modern replicas with knapped blades.
I think the whole thought about paratroopers with mohawks may have gotten misaligned a little bit. There is historical records of the paratroopers, and one of the things that is commonly referred to it. I think in history is early on the paratroopers used to yell Geronimo when they were jumping out of a plane, but the only reason for that is because of the night before D-Day, they were their soldiers were watching movies one of the movies they watched, was a movie about Geronimo, and so just on a lark someone just started yelling, Geronimo, and everyone else yelled at, so I don’t think there’s a big historical record for paratroopers particularly other than the Geronimo reference if there were Native American paratroopers, they may have used a mohawk, but I think it was probably going back to two earlier tradition of of of Native American warriors wearing a mohawk
I don’t remember where I heard this I’ve been listening to a lot of audiobooks about the plains, Indians, and especially the Comanches in one of these audiobooks they mentioned sort of the prevalence of what we call the mohawk or actually I think it was probably closer to what we call a mullet that was used by the Comanches when they were buffalo hunting and the reason that they used it was to prevent their hair getting hot in the strings of their bowl when they’re when they’re hunting in there they’re using a bow and arrow and there’s a lot of movement. The riding on horses are running or whatever it was because sometimes they’re here we get stuck in the string, the bow and rip the hair out so they would shave their hair to prevent their hair. Big pulled out when they were shooting a bow.
Mohican is the term for a Mohawk individual, like saying a "Briton" is a member of the collective "British". It was made famous in the book 'Last of the Mohicans' and that is probably how it came to UK parplance.
Hair is our connection to the spirit of the grandfather in the sky. To cut it off yet leaving enough for the enemy to try to grasp... Says to spirit I regret what I must do... Please show me grace.
your pan-indianism thing reminds me of when I was dating a south asian gal once and started swearing, and she went "oh, is that your ancestors language" and I had the sudden realization that I learned enough Lakota from a few old city Lakota in my uni town to swear but didn't know a lick of Wendat.
I doubt the airborne soldiers got the idea for their haircuts from television as very few people had T.V's in the early forties. However, most people did go to the theatre to watch movies and westerns were quite popular so I agree with you that they likely got the idea for the haircuts from the popular movies of the time...
Kwe skennen, a good reason for having the sides of their head shaved, is simply when they went hunting (with bow and arrows), if there was a side wind, their hair would have either blind them or get caught in their bow; that could have been quite problematic and painful. There are also some shakotiia'takehnhas who keep their hair long in order to keep in touch with Ratironhiakeronon ne Karonhianónhnah tsi ionterihwaienstahkhwa tanon Shonkwaya'tihson. Sometimes we forget these things...Ne akwekon skennen tanon atateken.
I think you stumbled onto something with your theory of how the length of time people mourned the dead was the time it took for their hair to grow back to full length.
Your talk about the professional warrior hairstyle got me thinking about your armor video and the use of the back shield. Could it be that the professionals wore the armor and the back shield was not only for youth, but also for the common men who may not be used to battle? Did only the Fighting men have armor? Or was every man expected to have at least a basic set?
It isn’t known. It’s possible the winged backplates were just for the best, but I don’t have anything to base that on. As the armor is made from common materials and doesn’t take much skill to make, I’d imagine every man over thirty would have as much of it as he desired.
Someday somebody with a lot more patience than me should really write an encyclopedia of military haircuts the world over. Because there's a whole lot of them, with a colossal range of symbolic meanings and variations and it would be a highly convenient resource. As an aside I had someone ask me once how an "African" warrior would cut their hair. Uh, what part of Africa my man? Beja and Maasai ain't gonna look the same.
Sub saharan Africa is always sort of generalized, people have no frame of reference so they lump things together. It’s like a lot of things, people assume all native folks lived in teepees and had totem poles. Or they think of the Inuit as a single people when there is half a world of difference between the Greenland Inuit and the Chukchi.
@@MalcolmPL One of the things I argued in my dissertation was that that kind of thinking--that all Native Americans or all Indigenous Africans were a monolith--helped the colonial powers lose some battles; Sheridan and Crook expect the Lakota to be just like the Apache, Chelmsford that the Zulu will fight the same way the Xhosa did, and it takes serious defeats to make them reconsider those assumptions.
I think the elongated roaches looked like a mohawk hairstyle. Maybe some white people saw them from afar and thought it was the man's own hair, especially if it was made from dark colored fur.
I am thinking the same thing. Furthermore, a modern person looking at an old depiction of a person wearing a roach would assume it was a hairstyle rather than a separate piece of headwear. The effect being that most modern people assume the look is achieved solely through cutting and styling one's own hair.
My guess: some guy from some tribe thought it would be a fun haircut and just ran with it. The white guys saw him and thought "those crazy Mohawks," referencing broadly all people of that area. Then, the name stuck. Kind of like how "osledets" is a mild slur towards Ukrainians, as that term references a haircut worn by Cossacks, who were partially from modern Ukraine.
Interesting thought! I think it may have been a warrior type of hairstyle to make running (especially through woods) more “slick” as well as a status symbol of a warrior. It could also be to make scalping more difficult possibly? I know here in Western NY, the Iroquois were known for that hairstyle (as well as being very warlike). If I remember correctly, they were called Mohawks interchangeably.
Mostly the old hostility has dissolved into friendly rivalry. For example, people on Six Nations like to make fun of the Ojibwe for talking slow and making soup wrong, and they do the same to us. Some groups still hold some resentment. They tend to be the smaller ones who owe some part of their misfortune to another group. For example, I'd imagine that the Huron-Wendat still hold some animosity for the Six Nations, in the same way that Six Nations has resentment towards the United States. There is also some degree of support in political action, I've got cousins who went and protested at Standing Rock and I know people who went out to protest at Wetʼsuwetʼen in BC or with the Mi'kmaq out east. And there are a number of people from across the continent who have come here to help in the protest at Caledonia over the years. Mostly it's just a "we're all in the same boat." kind of mentality.
@@MalcolmPL Thanks for the answer! I thought that it is something like what you described, but I know too well how deep can these hostilities can root. My own country has tons of them, ancient hatreds.
Don't have much info on the topic as far as how it is out east, but particularly I have heard many examples of Crow v. Lakota modern day violence. Being part Crow, I've heard from an older guy who was riding in Crow regalia at LBH battlefield while an Oglala Lakota College tour was there. Apparently an older gentleman with the group started saying something along the lines of "its a Crow, get him!" The younger Lakota guys apparently started darting towards this Crow guy on horseback. He turned to charge through them and made it passed the group untouched. Mind you this would've been in the early 90s or so. Maybe because the Crow v. Lakota rivalry is much more recent in terms of actual, full-scale combat, perhaps that is why it is way stronger than say the Six Nations v. Ojibwe.
hmmm weaponizing stereotyping so as to appear scarier to the enemy, gotta love it >:) even if the haircut didnt have apparent significance before, its use in WWII sure gave it some. imo even if its recent history, its still a meaningful and badass history :D
The difference between the citizen soldiers and the professional ones might an interesting rabbit whole to go down and see if there are any similarities with other cultures over the world
@@Notmyrealnameanymore It's hard to describe. "Soldier" is the wrong word because it is a profession, a job. "Warrior" is not a job, it is a vocation. It's a fundamental component of the identity. For example, there are ex-soldiers and former military. But there are no former warriors. A warrior remains a warrior even into his old age, even if he never makes war again. The closest parallel might be priest, a priest never stops being a priest unless he apostatizes or is defrocked. A warrior is the same thing. It's not a job, it's an element of character, an identity which coexists with occupation. There is also the aspect of individuality, a soldier is a cog. He is expected to follow orders without question or die trying. A warrior is an individual. His role is to protect his community as best he can, and he is left to interpret that role in his own fashion. For example, the Redcoats were frustrated on many occasions by the unreliability of their native allies. They would tell them to hold a bridge at all cost, only to have them abandon it when faced with a fair fight. The warriors knew that fair fights cost a lot of lives, and that if they died defending the bridge, that there would be no one left to fight the future battles. To summarize, The soldier's mantra, "Ours not to reason why, Ours not to make reply, Ours but to do and die, Into the valley of Death." While the warrior's mantra is simply, "Pick your battles." Tied into the issue of individuality is compensation. A soldier does his bit and is rewarded by the state. A warrior on the otherhand is not paid. He receives no formal compensation for his actions beyond the respect of his peers. He acts as an individual, not as a servant of the state. Then there is also the marital aspect, a soldier fights with his arms and his arms alone. A warrior has to also fight with his tongue and his mind. There are protesters and activists and community leaders who could be accurately described as warriors. But there aren't very many who I would describe as soldiers. I hope that makes sense. It's a difficult subject and I don't fully understand it myself. I can't find a word that accurately conveys what I'm talking about. It's like the word has three meanings. "Warrior." One who goes to war. "Warrior." An aspect of character. "Warrior." One who advertises said character.
I think that aside from the paratroopers depicted, the hairstyle originally became popular in the UK. Punk Rock originated in New York, but a lot of the fashion tropes didn't start until it took off in London, where it was mixed with 'Mod' and 'Skinhead' styles, as well as the original creations of (punk fashion designer) Vivienne Westwood and (Sex Pistols manager) Malcolm McLaren. The 'Skinhead' subculture is particularly relevant because males associating with it would typically shave their whole heads, whilst females would sometimes shave part of their heads to show their musical/subcultural allegiance, but let the hair grow longer on others so that their look retained some femininity. I.e. UK punks got into shaving part of their heads but growing their hair out on others in a more extreme version of the Skinhead look, and probably searched around for references to describe to their stylists how they wanted their hair to look. In the UK, the cut is usually called a 'Mohican', not a 'Mohawk'. The Mohican people are best known to most British people from 'The Last of the Mohicans.' There are very few First Nations/ Native American people in the UK. My guess is that the association is the result of ignorant British people absorbing ignorant cultural portrayals and racist tropes from American literature and cinema, and then transmitting these recycled prejudices to white Americans who didn't know or care if the hairstyle was originally from the Pawnee, the Mohican or the Mohawk people, and just used whatever name they felt like. Footnote: the Skinhead look is often associated with neo-nazis today, but originally began in the 60's, was racially inclusive, derived from Jamaican diaspora styles and heavily based around reggae music.
![J.P., NLE Choppa - Bad Bitty (Remix) [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/rBDa6BCvw10/mqdefault.jpg)
Man, conflicting emotions over here.
On the one hand, thank you for the well researched and thoughtful monologue.
But wow does that ever trigger a bunch of PTSD for me.
I was a kid in 1990 during the Oka crisis. My uncles were on the barricades, my cousins almost got run over by a Leopard tank when they were playing in the ditch outside their house, I went grocery shopping with my gramma on a speedboat across the St-Lawrence while tailed by CAF helicopters with gunners leering out the doors, I used to go fishing with a guy who tossed a Diemaco C7 rifle into the seaway during the failed invasion at the island, the hate-filled mobs, the burning effigies, soldiers searching our luggage when we left with the convoy through whiskey trench, knives pulled on me at school as one of the last remaining kids from the reserve attending french school.
All my friends shaved their heads with Mohawk haircuts that summer and for the next several thereafter.
But i was an outsider among outsiders.
Not only was I a pale-skinned C-31, my family were part of the JWs and my tyrant abusive father under no circumstances would have allowed that haircut.
I yearned for it like you would not believe.
And now male pattern baldness.
Cheers.
You prompted me to do some reading. Your Uncles did well.
Oh, my goodness. I just looked it up. I had never even heard of the Oka crisis. Thanks for your story.
had never heard of the Oka crisis
Funfact: In Germany we call the Mohawk haircut an "Irokesenschnitt" which means "Iroquois cut". I don't know the origin story of this name though, so, it's just a little titbit.
In finland we call it irokeesi just means "iroquois" in finnish.
"Iroquois" is a colonial name that gets applied to the cultural group the Mohawk are a part of. The political structure of the "Iroquois Confederacy" (Haudenosaunee) comes up in Western political theory occasionally (the US Constitution was based on their systems, though that's rarely acknowledged); Iroquois is thus one of the Indigenous terms that has some recognition globally, where Mohawk specifically might not.
Iroquois is a french term to describe the group the Mohawk are a nation of
@@renaigh
I've always been told Iroquois is an Algonquin word which means snake and that the Algonquin use the word snake to refer to their enemies. This makes sense as the Hodinöhsöni and Algonquin were enemies.
An anthropology teacher once told me something along the lines of “don’t worry too much about finding an ancient cultural explanation for something when it can be explained just as well by looking at the 1970s.” I think that holds well with the explanations from the 1940s. Modern culture is modern.
A couple years back, I remember hearing that one of the veterans in that WW2 photograph recut his hair into that mohawk! He was in a wheelchair and I think he just got over covid! If memory serves....
That rings a bell.
I think the warrior's hair style has a simple explanation.
Most head wounds will be inflicted on the front or sides of your head so if you remove the hair there it makes it easier to treat them.
The mourning hair thing is really interesting. It not only gives people a good long time to come to terms with someone's passing, but it also puts something like an in-built timer for it so you don't get stuck in grief for too long. It's compassionate and pragmatic
Reminds me of how us Scandinavians latched on to the inaccurate idea of the horned 'viking helmet' as well as exaggerated clichés about mead (Which wasn't drunk as often as a lot of people think). In many situations you'll find Scandinavians trying to latch onto ideas of 'vikingness' as a way to feel kinship and patriotism, just look at pictures of us at football games and you'll see people wearing horned helmets painted with their country's colors. At this point most of us know it's inaccurate, but it definitely ingrained itself in our subconscious. How a people is portrayed by outsiders can definitely influence the people's own view of themselves, and since your people are portrayed so rarely, so inaccurately and often so disparagingly, it wouldn't surprise me if one of your theories is correct.
I think it's belived that the Wagner's famous operas created the Horned helmet = Viking thing, but the actual horned helmet wearing peoples were proto-indo-european horseman from the steepes and their horns were more tubes with feathers.
Reading a book about the Powhatan it was mentioned (from an English first hand account I believe) that the Powhatan men would keep their hair shaved down one side, long on the other so their hair wouldn’t interfere with a bow pulled to the ear (the Extant Powhatan bows from the time period are like five foot eight) but it didn’t mention casual hair. The only place where I’ve ever seen it portrayed is in the Disney animated Pocahontas.
Ah, that’s interesting, I found a number of pictures like that, and I was wondering.
@@MalcolmPL Ive never seen one outside Disney. Mostly the portrayals of Powhatans are copies of the 1585 Algonquin sketch. Do you remember where you saw the photos?
Pinterest, the one off the top of my head was a portrait from the seventeen hundreds. And I saw another one that was a really ugly sketch with no date.
Not really, I have one but I haven’t saved much to it. Just a handful of weird artifacts that I haven’t seen elsewhere.
Here's a little linguistic tidbit for you: the hairstyle is known as an ирокез in Russian - literally an Iroquois.
that picture of the two soldiers is kinda beautiful, a reminder that their people still fought on and continue to this very day.
My thought about the wearing of a scalp lock, perhaps wrongly, is that it would act as a challenge to the enemy- daring them to come and take their scalp.
This is very interesting. I think your point on pan-Indianism is basically right. More than likely they didn't get the idea to do the "Mohawk" from one specific source, but from a vague amalgamation of the Hollywood Indian that existed in the memories. It's interesting that, if I understood it correctly, the use of the "Mohawk" by actual Mohawks in WWII inspired the name.
Pamunkey were the heads of the Confederacy, and they lived on Virginia’s Eastern coast line. They had a reserve set aside for them in 1676 and It’s in a pretty good place, since it’s on the river, and a lot of people live off it to this day.
I did not know that! Thanks for sharing, I grew up in Virginia and loved the history, always wondered what happened to the natives there. We always hear about the non- East Coast natives, glad to hear that some survived on the coast.
Thanks for the elaboration. I’m not very knowledgeable beyond the Great Lakes region.
The hairstyle of the shaved (plucked) head, except for long hair on top of the head, was also used by the Ukrainian Cossacks.
Thanks for being a creator and sharing your insights. Knowledge should be chased into the shadows of the sunset and then given to everyone with the morning sunrise.
That’s a nice way of putting it.
German here. We actually call this hairstyle an Iro or Irokesen cut (Iroquois)
That’s interesting, I hadn’t heard that.
Hello, I am from Ireland and know very little about native Americans, but I really like this channel, great video!
this is my new favorite channel
the warrior haircut you mentioned is also present across the ocean, the manchu were famous for having extra long queues and made it mandatory during their rule in china, the samurai had a hairstyle that also exaggerated the tail, the cossacks had a similar one to yours named chupryna but a different style of wearing it
in caucasus, especially among the circassians and the abkhaz, warriors by trade and other men who went to war would also leave a portion of their hair at the back and shave the rest, when they decide to retire from warfare they would cut their hair in a ceremony and return to "civilian" life
perhaps it was a way of having hair but not getting it in the way while fighting in close quarters
The prevelence of reduced hair area in warriors is so widespread that it strongly sugjests a universal utilitarian purpose.
I visited the Delaware region as a child and picked up a book, Dickon Amongst the Lenape, it was a wonderful book (to me) I forget who wrote it. He was a historian in , I think, the 1930s and part of the book talks about Dickon being adopted into the tribe. Part of this is about hairstyles and making a head piece of turkey beards and dyed deer fur. If you could find a copy it might be interesting for you. I know little of First Nations people, but your videos are very interesting. Thanks
Apparently, the paratrooper who came up with the idea for the mohawks and face paint was Jake McNiece. He was a part of a demolition crew in the 101st Airborne known as the Filthy Thirteen, grew up in Oklahoma, and was part Choctaw. Funny.
I hadn't heard that. Funny indeed.
There is at least one good video about his life and accomplishments on RUclips. Might be SimpleHistory . Anywho, it was a camaraderie thing for them he thought up that day.
Just wanted to say I love these rambley videos! Great insight and I love hearing you hypothesize.
I came across your video while trying to find out how to shave a mohawk on myself. Thanks for this information. I found it interesting and your voice very soothing and calming. I have subscribed
Thank you for sharing your perspective and experience it is extremely insightful and meaningful.
I loved this snowy woods talk, thank you for sharing your thoughts on the origins of the hairstyle.
You’re welcome.
I really appreciate your thoughts in this video. I had a mohawk hairstyle in high school I guess because I wanted to be different. Now, at age 32 I cut my hair back into a mohawk because I want to re-connect with the younger me that was daring enough to be different. To me, it enhances confidence. I stumbled across this video while searching for its origins, and I'm glad I did. You mentioned the Coeur d'Alene reservation; I was about to move to Coeur d'Alene city for a job just a week ago... but that fell through. I LOVE the area though.
Very insightful and interesting. One of the few RUclips channels worth having notifications turned on for
"Mohawks" and "fauxhawks" were soooo common in the early 2000s when I was in elementary school. I remember being kinda confused and thinking "dude that's not a Mohawk-exclusive style--I've seen Mvskokee and Chickashaw portraits with that hair--it's warrior hair and you shouldn't be wearing it before you've earned it!" Most of my classmates didn't even know "Mohawk" was an indigenous nation, though, so trying to explain that was an exercise in futility (and my first major encounter with cultural appropriation).
That being said, there are some really irksome anthropologists who insist my nation, the Chahta (Choctaw), didn't exist before 1700 because we don't come up by name in colonial records--but the colonial records mention this otherwise nonexistent group of people who lived in our homelands who's name would roughly translate to "the long haired people" in Mvskokee... Chahta were notable for wearing their hair full and long much later than basically every other nation around us in the Southeast. Apparently, that distinction is so old and so notable that most of the nations around us called us "longhairs" because of it!
The style you outline in this video was eventually adopted by some in the 1800s, but I think it was partly a reaction to assimilationist pressures (it was more in tune with the militant resistance of Tecumseh to wear the partly-shaved warrior look). After Removal, I know there were many who had European style cuts in the front and sides, but kept a long braid from the top-back of their head--an adaptation of this style.There are still a lot of Chahta boys today who have close-cut hair, minus a braid that comes from the crown of the head. Some Chahtas with long hair do an undercut on the right--this hairstyle is understood to have origins in keeping one's hair out of their bowstring. I figure there were several ways of arranging hair that communicated significant things, but colonization and boarding schools wiped most of that out. I grew up being told long hair was federally protected for Indigenous folx, but it wasn't worth singling yourself out and constantly having to fight over it with schools/employers, so few Chahta men grew their hair long any more. I keep my hair long, and am taken aback how even now I'll get flack for it from random strangers who think they're entitled to share their opinion of *my hair.*
~3:30 In Nepal they have a similar practice of cutting the hair to show mourning, but I believe it's specific to sons mourning their fathers.
I hadn't heard that, That's oddly specific.
Thank you so much for your thesis on this subject. Very interesting objective you have. I love finding channels like this. A true gem to go through. Thank you for sharing. 🙏
You’re most welcome.
To me, that is a very reasonable theory. I enjoyed listening. Best wishes from switzerland
I love your channel. Thank you for sharing.
Isn't it great how something as simple as haircuts become metaphysical when you look at them closely enough? Outstanding video lol
Now I don't know if the word already existed in German during WW2, but at least since the Punk movement hit Germany in the late 70's, most Germans would call this hairstyle "Irokese".
Your theory is simple and elegant.
Very interesting! Thank you!
Thank you.
So many perspectives to consider in this matter although for the Airborne soldiers I do think it was a matter of yes we're willing to die for our country and people but also Heritage patriotism and psychological warfare
Yeah in that case it was certainly psychological.
i genuinely find many of the customs of the haudenosaunee people to be very compelling.
maybe that has to do with the "mystical noble savage" tropes that i, as a white person raised in america, was brought up with but i think that's probably not the case. i do not think that there are such things as savage or civilized cultures. but that's not to say that they are all the same. the great thing about humans is how diverse our norms can be. it's truly wonderful.
the haudenausonee and other american indians had a huge impact on our modern world. pretty much the entirety of european egalitarian philosophy stems from them and not the european enlightenment thinkers that are commonly credited.
i appreciate very much that you feel comfortable sharing your experience and knowledge of your people's culture with us. thank you.
Ive heard some people who do Mediterranean/european history talk about the diference between a Warrior as being someone who in time of war will pick up arms for their faction (be it tribe, town, city etc) vs Soldiers who's profession it is to conduct war and train specifically for it even when at peace.
Not sure that it applies here but i thpught it an interesting discussion point
Many groups north of China did similar things with their hair to what the Native Americans seem to have done. The Manchu Que would be a good example but most other tribes in the region did similar things.
Seems good honest research, attractively delivered. From what I can gather from here in Birmingham UK
If the hair scalping is about power, it makes sense that they would PLUCK the hair instead of shaving it, because if you shave it, there is always still some hair left to take.
Also, many stone-age civilizations across the globe have pain-rituals for initiating young men, so it could have something to do with that, too. And might also explain why an experienced king like Peter Brand could afford to grow his hair back. Maybe he was so sure of his fighting abilities that he was daring people to take his scalp.
You do a great job in your videos. Thanks
Very white Albertan here and I remembered learning about the Mohawk people when we studied the Haudenasaunee comfederacy. I always thought it was a coincidence that the hairstyle had the same name as the band.
Thanks for telling the actual history because I could've just gone through life without this knowledge.
Really enjoying your videos. Shalom from Jerusalem
Sometimes your thoughts need to be spoken , it helps to make sense of them 😐
Yeah I just go out wandering the fields muttering like a crazy person.
I'm curious to hear the thoughts of a first nations person on the traditional haircut of the Ukrainian Cossacks, it too served to communicate an important status and hearing you talk about this is already making me draw some comparison between the two, thanks for the info!
looks ok. not to my personal taste but probably looks nice in full cossack regalia.
very often specialized haircuts suffer when they are juxtaposed with more modern/less formal clothing, the one exception being among wartime soldiers because it's hard to criticize how someone looks when you know they're living much harder than you are and getting shelled/shot/monthly dysentery.
Your theory is absolutely right bro
I use the term "woo woo" in that way too. I don't know where I got that from, or if it's just a natural onomatopoeia sorta thing.
Malcolm She gom - Very well done. I have always had the same thoughts about the Mohawk haircut that you have brought to light here. I came across the plucking out of hair by early accounts of whites captured by Iroquois Indians such as James Smith who was captured by the Mohawk at the opening of the French and Indian war down in Pennsylvania. His book is a great read. He lived with the Mohawks in the Ohio country for like 4 years. He mentions at one point certain Mohawks were enemies to some other Mohawks in the Ohio country. He goes into detail how they lived and survived in the winter. Anyway you probably know about this. One other thought -James Smith mentions the Mohawk had three braids after they plucked the hair out do you think thats why Mohawks have the three Eagle Feathers in the Gustowas headress? Thanks for your awesome videos.
I’ve only read bits and pieces of that book, never got around to reading it properly.
As to the three braids, I read that somewhere and it’s reasonable, but I don’t have any real opinion beyond that.
Excellent enjoyable entertainment on a evening, I'm a new subscriber.
There are people around who know something about "warriors" first hand. All over the world those people shave their heads for very down to earth practical reasons:
- Wound attendance will be easier.
- Hygiene in the field will be easier.
- Head cover or protection doesn't go easy with too long hair.
- Hand to hand combat doesn't go well with too long hair.
As a kid whats called a Mowhawk used to be called a Mohican that's England in the 1970's and punk Rock and Taxi Driver film,Robert De Nero's part, Travis Bickle ?I think that's the name,yeah,so Mohican.
One thought that came to me while watching was that if you were scalped and survived, then you would likely only be able to grow hair on the back of your head anyway. Perhaps this kind of hair style might have originally not been intentional, but was the only hair option left for someone who had survived the great hardship of a scalping, thus becoming associated with tough fighters (Though I don't really know much about the details or context of scalping, so I might be spouting nonsense here).
A year late but i wanted to say, great video, thank you.
Total blind guess, but maybe a short hair style was popular among the warriors because long hair would be a handle on your head during hand to hand combat and thus was a disadvantage
In England we call it a Mohican.
Thanks for the video, I'm thinking it was just a hairstyle that was used by different tribes and just ended up getting stuck with the mohawk people because of the name. The hairstyle was also use by the meshika people's Elite Warriors the "mohawk" on top and then a ponytail on the back.
I hadn’t heard that.
Enjoyed your video good story 👍
Does the ponytail in the back affect helmet wearing?
i really like your content! thank you for sharing. did the first nations pluck their hair for the bald look before steel/metal blades were introduced?
A stone blade or flake would surely shave closer than a metal razor
Yes. One European who saw it describes it as like plucking a turkey.
I don’t know if you can make a good razor from stone. Even the best ones I’ve seen have an uneven edge, which might gauge the skin if you applied enough pressure to shave. This is a question for a skilled knapper.
@@MalcolmPL You can make a straight, extremely sharp blade using something called either prismatic flaking or blade core flaking. I don't know how to do it, but in theory you strike a near 90-degree edge of a large core and it will run a long, very sharp, straight flake off. You can then just keep repeating the processes going around the core. This is how the macahuitl blades of many Mesoamerican cultures were made - they were much sharper, thinner, and more even, so they worked better than a lot of modern replicas with knapped blades.
I think the whole thought about paratroopers with mohawks may have gotten misaligned a little bit. There is historical records of the paratroopers, and one of the things that is commonly referred to it. I think in history is early on the paratroopers used to yell Geronimo when they were jumping out of a plane, but the only reason for that is because of the night before D-Day, they were their soldiers were watching movies one of the movies they watched, was a movie about Geronimo, and so just on a lark someone just started yelling, Geronimo, and everyone else yelled at, so I don’t think there’s a big historical record for paratroopers particularly other than the Geronimo reference if there were Native American paratroopers, they may have used a mohawk, but I think it was probably going back to two earlier tradition of of of Native American warriors wearing a mohawk
I don’t remember where I heard this I’ve been listening to a lot of audiobooks about the plains, Indians, and especially the Comanches in one of these audiobooks they mentioned sort of the prevalence of what we call the mohawk or actually I think it was probably closer to what we call a mullet that was used by the Comanches when they were buffalo hunting and the reason that they used it was to prevent their hair getting hot in the strings of their bowl when they’re when they’re hunting in there they’re using a bow and arrow and there’s a lot of movement. The riding on horses are running or whatever it was because sometimes they’re here we get stuck in the string, the bow and rip the hair out so they would shave their hair to prevent their hair. Big pulled out when they were shooting a bow.
Awesome like I heard some plains and woodland tribes has a different style of putting there hair
Everybody does.
In the UK such a haircut is called a Mohican, worn by punks and skinheads. I've never heard it referred to as a Mohawk.
Mohican is the term for a Mohawk individual, like saying a "Briton" is a member of the collective "British". It was made famous in the book 'Last of the Mohicans' and that is probably how it came to UK parplance.
Hair is our connection to the spirit of the grandfather in the sky. To cut it off yet leaving enough for the enemy to try to grasp... Says to spirit I regret what I must do... Please show me grace.
I like that.
your pan-indianism thing reminds me of when I was dating a south asian gal once and started swearing, and she went "oh, is that your ancestors language" and I had the sudden realization that I learned enough Lakota from a few old city Lakota in my uni town to swear but didn't know a lick of Wendat.
excellent - thank you
You’re welcome.
I doubt the airborne soldiers got the idea for their haircuts from television as very few people had T.V's in the early forties. However, most people did go to the theatre to watch movies and westerns were quite popular so I agree with you that they likely got the idea for the haircuts from the popular movies of the time...
I misspoke. I should have said movies, but living in the modern world the two words are basically synonyms in my mind.
I think your theory is bang on.
That makes one of us.
Kwe skennen, a good reason for having the sides of their head shaved, is simply when they went hunting (with bow and arrows), if there was a side wind, their hair would have either blind them or get caught in their bow; that could have been quite problematic and painful. There are also some shakotiia'takehnhas who keep their hair long in order to keep in touch with Ratironhiakeronon ne Karonhianónhnah tsi ionterihwaienstahkhwa tanon Shonkwaya'tihson. Sometimes we forget these things...Ne akwekon skennen tanon atateken.
Interesting information, thanks for sharing
Cheers.
I think you stumbled onto something with your theory of how the length of time people mourned the dead was the time it took for their hair to grow back to full length.
Thinking about it
The "Warrior hairstyle" almost looks like it's goading.
Kind of a "come and take it" vibe.
Thinking more about it
perhaps only having a little hair to scalp would've made a scalping safer.
7:27 I wish I was English folk had such a tradition.
Your talk about the professional warrior hairstyle got me thinking about your armor video and the use of the back shield. Could it be that the professionals wore the armor and the back shield was not only for youth, but also for the common men who may not be used to battle? Did only the Fighting men have armor? Or was every man expected to have at least a basic set?
It isn’t known.
It’s possible the winged backplates were just for the best, but I don’t have anything to base that on.
As the armor is made from common materials and doesn’t take much skill to make, I’d imagine every man over thirty would have as much of it as he desired.
@@MalcolmPL well thank you for sharing what you do. It’s very interesting and your delivery makes it twice as awesome.
Someday somebody with a lot more patience than me should really write an encyclopedia of military haircuts the world over. Because there's a whole lot of them, with a colossal range of symbolic meanings and variations and it would be a highly convenient resource.
As an aside I had someone ask me once how an "African" warrior would cut their hair. Uh, what part of Africa my man? Beja and Maasai ain't gonna look the same.
Sub saharan Africa is always sort of generalized, people have no frame of reference so they lump things together.
It’s like a lot of things, people assume all native folks lived in teepees and had totem poles. Or they think of the Inuit as a single people when there is half a world of difference between the Greenland Inuit and the Chukchi.
@@MalcolmPL One of the things I argued in my dissertation was that that kind of thinking--that all Native Americans or all Indigenous Africans were a monolith--helped the colonial powers lose some battles; Sheridan and Crook expect the Lakota to be just like the Apache, Chelmsford that the Zulu will fight the same way the Xhosa did, and it takes serious defeats to make them reconsider those assumptions.
you could use the term "elite" warriors vs "citizen" warrior to distinguish between a warrior caste and men protecting their family and nations
That isn't the right distinction though.
I think the elongated roaches looked like a mohawk hairstyle. Maybe some white people saw them from afar and thought it was the man's own hair, especially if it was made from dark colored fur.
I am thinking the same thing. Furthermore, a modern person looking at an old depiction of a person wearing a roach would assume it was a hairstyle rather than a separate piece of headwear. The effect being that most modern people assume the look is achieved solely through cutting and styling one's own hair.
I have often thought that myself!
It's an interesting topic! Has anyone ever said you look like Lou Diamond Phillips?
No, no one has ever said that.
I guess we've both got faces that are simultaneously round and angular.
My guess: some guy from some tribe thought it would be a fun haircut and just ran with it. The white guys saw him and thought "those crazy Mohawks," referencing broadly all people of that area. Then, the name stuck. Kind of like how "osledets" is a mild slur towards Ukrainians, as that term references a haircut worn by Cossacks, who were partially from modern Ukraine.
Interesting thought! I think it may have been a warrior type of hairstyle to make running (especially through woods) more “slick” as well as a status symbol of a warrior. It could also be to make scalping more difficult possibly? I know here in Western NY, the Iroquois were known for that hairstyle (as well as being very warlike). If I remember correctly, they were called Mohawks interchangeably.
I didn’t know the Cossacks used it, interesting.
If I may ask it, old enmities between native peoples do exist these days? Like Lakota and Pawnee? I hope not.
Mostly the old hostility has dissolved into friendly rivalry. For example, people on Six Nations like to make fun of the Ojibwe for talking slow and making soup wrong, and they do the same to us.
Some groups still hold some resentment. They tend to be the smaller ones who owe some part of their misfortune to another group. For example, I'd imagine that the Huron-Wendat still hold some animosity for the Six Nations, in the same way that Six Nations has resentment towards the United States.
There is also some degree of support in political action, I've got cousins who went and protested at Standing Rock and I know people who went out to protest at Wetʼsuwetʼen in BC or with the Mi'kmaq out east. And there are a number of people from across the continent who have come here to help in the protest at Caledonia over the years.
Mostly it's just a "we're all in the same boat." kind of mentality.
@@MalcolmPL Thanks for the answer! I thought that it is something like what you described, but I know too well how deep can these hostilities can root. My own country has tons of them, ancient hatreds.
Don't have much info on the topic as far as how it is out east, but particularly I have heard many examples of Crow v. Lakota modern day violence. Being part Crow, I've heard from an older guy who was riding in Crow regalia at LBH battlefield while an Oglala Lakota College tour was there. Apparently an older gentleman with the group started saying something along the lines of "its a Crow, get him!" The younger Lakota guys apparently started darting towards this Crow guy on horseback. He turned to charge through them and made it passed the group untouched. Mind you this would've been in the early 90s or so. Maybe because the Crow v. Lakota rivalry is much more recent in terms of actual, full-scale combat, perhaps that is why it is way stronger than say the Six Nations v. Ojibwe.
Ay, that’s a shame.
hmmm weaponizing stereotyping so as to appear scarier to the enemy, gotta love it >:) even if the haircut didnt have apparent significance before, its use in WWII sure gave it some. imo even if its recent history, its still a meaningful and badass history :D
A non-american here who as a kid thought mo "hawk" reffered to a hairdo a famous black man named Mo had. Who's that famous black man you ask? Mr. T.
Maybe the style of the patch of hair on the crown is a target, a challenge, to the enemy to take come and take it. A show of bravado.
Check out John White's artwork from the late 16th c
The difference between the citizen soldiers and the professional ones might an interesting rabbit whole to go down and see if there are any similarities with other cultures over the world
Yeah maybe, even the phrase “professional soldier” doesn’t really convey an accurate impression.
@@MalcolmPL i would love to hear your thoughts a bit more on what you mean. Your ideas and view points are always are always a blessing man
@@Notmyrealnameanymore It's hard to describe.
"Soldier" is the wrong word because it is a profession, a job. "Warrior" is not a job, it is a vocation. It's a fundamental component of the identity.
For example, there are ex-soldiers and former military. But there are no former warriors. A warrior remains a warrior even into his old age, even if he never makes war again.
The closest parallel might be priest, a priest never stops being a priest unless he apostatizes or is defrocked. A warrior is the same thing. It's not a job, it's an element of character, an identity which coexists with occupation.
There is also the aspect of individuality, a soldier is a cog. He is expected to follow orders without question or die trying. A warrior is an individual. His role is to protect his community as best he can, and he is left to interpret that role in his own fashion.
For example, the Redcoats were frustrated on many occasions by the unreliability of their native allies. They would tell them to hold a bridge at all cost, only to have them abandon it when faced with a fair fight.
The warriors knew that fair fights cost a lot of lives, and that if they died defending the bridge, that there would be no one left to fight the future battles.
To summarize,
The soldier's mantra,
"Ours not to reason why,
Ours not to make reply,
Ours but to do and die,
Into the valley of Death."
While the warrior's mantra is simply,
"Pick your battles."
Tied into the issue of individuality is compensation. A soldier does his bit and is rewarded by the state.
A warrior on the otherhand is not paid. He receives no formal compensation for his actions beyond the respect of his peers. He acts as an individual, not as a servant of the state.
Then there is also the marital aspect, a soldier fights with his arms and his arms alone. A warrior has to also fight with his tongue and his mind. There are protesters and activists and community leaders who could be accurately described as warriors. But there aren't very many who I would describe as soldiers.
I hope that makes sense. It's a difficult subject and I don't fully understand it myself. I can't find a word that accurately conveys what I'm talking about.
It's like the word has three meanings.
"Warrior." One who goes to war.
"Warrior." An aspect of character.
"Warrior." One who advertises said character.
Nice campfire conversation.
Cheers. No fire though.
@@MalcolmPL The warmth of your spirit flows through the 5G totem!
Ironicaly this hairstyle here is called Iroquois
John Smith never captured Powhatan
Maybe its a taunt.
The ancient Scots, also wore this style. The Seal People .
I hadn’t heard that.
I think that aside from the paratroopers depicted, the hairstyle originally became popular in the UK. Punk Rock originated in New York, but a lot of the fashion tropes didn't start until it took off in London, where it was mixed with 'Mod' and 'Skinhead' styles, as well as the original creations of (punk fashion designer) Vivienne Westwood and (Sex Pistols manager) Malcolm McLaren. The 'Skinhead' subculture is particularly relevant because males associating with it would typically shave their whole heads, whilst females would sometimes shave part of their heads to show their musical/subcultural allegiance, but let the hair grow longer on others so that their look retained some femininity. I.e. UK punks got into shaving part of their heads but growing their hair out on others in a more extreme version of the Skinhead look, and probably searched around for references to describe to their stylists how they wanted their hair to look.
In the UK, the cut is usually called a 'Mohican', not a 'Mohawk'. The Mohican people are best known to most British people from 'The Last of the Mohicans.' There are very few First Nations/ Native American people in the UK. My guess is that the association is the result of ignorant British people absorbing ignorant cultural portrayals and racist tropes from American literature and cinema, and then transmitting these recycled prejudices to white Americans who didn't know or care if the hairstyle was originally from the Pawnee, the Mohican or the Mohawk people, and just used whatever name they felt like.
Footnote: the Skinhead look is often associated with neo-nazis today, but originally began in the 60's, was racially inclusive, derived from Jamaican diaspora styles and heavily based around reggae music.
He was a warrior but not a warrior ...... what you mean is, he was a warrior, but not a professional soldier.
Soldier is again the wrong word though. It’s got connotations that do not apply.
head hair plucked ....... ouch
I suppose it also shows how tough you are.
I think your theory is pretty likely
I also think your pan indianism theory is correct.
Jake McNiece was the soldier you were talking about. ruclips.net/video/sVnhbxnBmIo/видео.html
Paumunkeys are not from New England their from Virginia!
Wow!! #1 place to + your subs Promo-SM!!
What?