Red Horn

Only in Hocąk literature is he is known as "Red Horn" (Hešucka), but among the Ioway and Hocągara both, he is known by one of his variant names, "He Who Wears (Man) Faces on His Ears".

Archaeologists have speculated that Red Horn is a mythic figure in Mississippian art, represented on a number of Southeastern Ceremonial Complex (SECC) artifacts.

According to legend, Red Horn is one of the five great soteriological spirits fashioned by the Creator's own hands, sent to earth to make the world safe for the least endowed of Earthmaker's creation, the "two-legged walkers".

Each made an impassioned plea to free the young man, but the bad water spirits were determined to eat him, so Loon and Otter left the underworld for the earth where they have lived ever after.

Wears Faces on His Ears broke his chains as though they were made of string, then grabbed a fire brand and began to club the water spirits to death and to set their realm aflame.

"[16] Nevertheless, the very end of our story identifies Red Horn, in his form as Wears Faces on His Ears, as a fixed star, probably Alnilam of Orion.

[19] In the Red Horn Cycle, when a human chief offers his daughter as a prize in a race, all the fastest spirits in creation show up to compete.

She and her daughters gave a loud shout, and a gale force wind issued from above, yet the young man and the good spirits held fast.

The members of this select war party were Turtle, Wolf, Sleets as He Walks, Great Black Hawk, Red Horn, Otter, Loon, and the Twins (Flesh and Ghost).

Under Trickster's leadership, all kinds of foolish mistakes were made, so a different war leader stepped forward at the critical moment when they were being charged by the evil spirits.

In the myth known as "The Brown Squirrel", the hero of the story terrorizes a bad spirit by constantly pointing a red cedar horn at him.

[28] At the very end of the myth the bad spirit is turned into a brown squirrel and told, "Humans you tried to abuse, so ever after will boys shoot you with protruding horns (he-pųjogera).

When he called out to the spirits with a death song, the kind sung by prisoners about to be executed, the giants who heard it would immediately jump into the fire.

A little girl with a boy that she packed on her back were spared so that the race of giants would not become extinct, but they were thrown to the other side of the sea so that they would no longer be a threat.

Other artifacts, such as the bilobed arrow, may shed light on an obscure name held by Red Horn in his youth, "He Who is Hit with Deer Lungs".

Salzer contends that the scene of Panel 5 at the Gottschall Rockshelter represents Red Horn and his friends confronting the giants.

At Picture Cave, discovered by Carol Diaz-Granados, there exists a pictograph the central figure of which wears prosopic earpieces, leading to the suggestion that he represents an early form of Red Horn.

In the Ioway version of the Red Horn story, Wears Man-Heads in His Ears puts on a pair of prosopic earpieces which come to life.

pictorial art shows figures with long-nosed god maskettes on their ears, recalling the appearance of Red Horn and his sons.

[45] One of these is a sculpted pipe bowl, nicknamed "Big Boy", showing a seated young man wearing short-nosed prosopic earpieces (discussed below).

[52] The reason for the gourmet value of deer lungs (ca raxúra) is explained in connection with an episode in a story entitled "The Fleetfooted Man": There a Hotcâk village was.

So the name that is presented as a misnomer, turns out on an esoteric level to be an understated description for the spirit who travels as fast as an arrow.

These facts have led archaeologists to see the story of Red Horn in terms of the immortality of reproduction: a man lives on in his sons, to whom he gives a genetic patrimony that makes them just like himself.

More important, it recalls the third name by which Red Horn or He-who-wears-human-heads-as-earrings was known -- He-who-is-hit-with-deer-lungs -- because the owl feathers attached to the calumets represented deer lungs.

"Big Boy", which was uncovered from the Great Mortuary of Craig Mound at Spiro,[59] is a large effigy pipe weighing 11 lbs., 8 oz., probably made of bauxite.

Brown leans strongly towards this view, but voices a note of caution: All told, we have in this figure a remarkable combination of the very elements by which the Red Horn hero-deity of the Winnebago is identified in myth.

Although this might suggest that the Red Horn identification can be extrapolated into deep antiquity, caution is dictated because of the inherent ambiguities attendant upon the sources of our information, to say nothing of the time spread involved.

[69] In a departure from the received opinion, Duncan and Diaz-Granados contend that the prosopic earpieces represent the Twins and were used by captives being adopted into the tribe.

[83] As its name suggests, it contains a wealth of pictographs, including one that has been identified with the Hotcąk spirit Red Horn (Wears Faces on His Ears).

Red Horn's head is described as being carried by one of his sons ... this is an unmistakable scene at Picture Cave that is finely and delicately rendered and includes a substantial use of white pigment.