page_title: Red Horn
section_title: Big Boy
hierarchical_section_title: Red Horn / Red Horn in archaeology / Big Boy
caption_attribution_description: A Missouri flint clay effigy pipe called "Big Boy" found at the en:Spiro Mounds site.
context_page_description: Red Horn is a culture hero in Siouan oral traditions, specifically of the Ioway and Hocąk nations.
  He has different names. Only in Hocąk literature is he known as "Red Horn", but among the Ioway and Hocągara both, he is known by one of his variant names, "He Who Wears Faces on His Ears". This name derives from the living faces on his earlobes, or earbobs that come to life when he places them on his ears. Elsewhere, he is given yet another name, "Red Man", because his entire body is red from head to toe.
  Red Horn was one of the five sons of Earthmaker, whom the Creator fashioned with his own hands and sent to earth to rescue humanity. During his sojourn on earth, he contested both giants and water spirits, and led war parties against the bad spirits who plagued humanity. As Wears Faces on His Ears, he is also said to be a star, although its identity is a subject of controversy. Under the names "One Horn" and "Without Horns", he and his sons are chiefs over the small hunting spirits known as the herok'a and the "little children spirits". Red Horn, as chief of the herok'a, has a spiritual and sometimes corporeal identity with the arrow.
context_section_description: "Big Boy", which was uncovered from the Great Mortuary of Craig Mound at Spiro, is a large effigy pipe weighing 11 lbs., 8 oz., probably made of bauxite. It is likely that it was originally a sculpture that was only later converted into a pipe bowl. This remarkable artifact was first illustrated in 1952. The figure is nude, with his hair arranged in an occipital bun and a long braid hanging over his left shoulder. His only body clothing is a cape draped over his back. The cape has a "spade" or feather design, leading most archaeologists to conclude that it was a feather cape, a mantle well known from many Native American cultures in historical times. However, it seems unlikely that it actually is a feather cape. 
  The blanket ... is decorated with a "spade" design, which, considering the accuracy of detail and faithfulness of depiction in the rest of the pipe, is a detail that should be interpreted literally rather than figuratively. In this light, the "spade" design elements should be regarded as part of the blanket itself.
  It once bore a heavy coat of red ochre, some of which is still visible. He also wears a flat cap with a raised border around its top which has an "ogee" design in negative relief. Brown believes that this cap "appears to be a case for displaying a copper plate." The subject of the sculpture also wears a rich, triple-strand necklace of wampum beads. His most interesting feature, however, is a pair of prosopic ear ornaments, clearly of the Short-Nosed God type. Reilly, on the assumption that the SECC clay effigy pipes are of divine subjects, concludes, because of Big Boy's long red braid and prosopic earpieces, that he must represent "Morning Star" (by which he means Red Horn). James A. 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.
  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. Consequently, they view Big Boy as a representation of such an adoptee, and not as Red Horn himself.
caption: The carved stone pipe nicknamed "Big Boy".
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