a hairstyle where the sides of the head are shaved and a strip of longer hair runs down the middle, or a Native American people from the Northeast.
Named after the Mohawk, an Iroquoian people. Their traditional style featured a central strip of hair, which colonial observers named. The punk subculture reclaimed this style in the 1970s as a symbol of rebellion.
It's one of history's stranger appropriations—the punk movement adopted a Mohawk hairstyle inspired by Native Americans, but the Mohawk Nation had actually abandoned the style centuries earlier; punks were reviving something Native people themselves had moved past.
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