Redman is a spirit being whose body is completely red in color. He is almost certainly the same as the Chief of the Herok'a. He lives inside the Red Hill (Necedah) near the Wisconsin River, and there he still exerts his powers for those who seek his blessings.

Redman's wife deliberately caused her husband to lose his ability to hunt, so he had to shoot her to save his children from starvation. Her brothers came to avenge her only to fall to Redman one at a time, except for her fourth brother. This last, whose body was inlaid with flint, decapitated Redman and kept his head in the fireplace of his lodge where he made sure that the fire was kept well stoked. Redman's body wandered about without a head on the road around Red Hill, gradually weakening as time dragged on. In the meantime, his (grand-)children married into the family of their mother without knowing it. The daughter of Redman's daughter was at her grandfather's lodge when she saw Redman's head in the fire. She and her husband, who was innocent of any knowledge of Redman's presence in the fire, pulled the head out. They had the body brought to them and rejoined Redman's head to it by a reviving sweat bath. The old man who killed him was smashed to pieces by Hare or turned into an owl by his paternal grandson, one of the clan of forked men. Redman revived those who had been killed, including his wife, and became Chief of the Herok'a, a diminutive race of spirits who possess infallible powers with bows and arrows. [1]

In another waikâ we encounter what must be a symbolic counterpart to Redman. An old man who is said to have the spirit nature of a hîdja owl has a forked man for a grandson. Thus he would seem to be the same as the grandfather Owl Spirit whose body is made of flint and whose grandson is also a forked man. In the other story, they encountered a giant red man who stands in the sea. They kill him and eat his decapitated head. [2]

Since we learn elsewhere that the Chief of the Herok'a is Redhorn, we must conclude that Redman and Redhorn are one and the same. [3]

Links: Herok'a, The Forked Man, Hare, Owls, The Cave of Herok'a.

Stories: in which Redman is a character: The Red Man, The Chief of the Herok'a, cf. Wears White Feathers on His Head; featuring the Herok'a as characters: The Chief of the Herok'a, The Red Man, The Baldheaded Warclub Origin Myth, The Human Head, Redhorn's Sons; in which the Forked Man is a character: The Red Man, The Chief of the Herok'a, The Spirit of Gambling, Wears White Feathers on His Head; in which owls are mentioned: Crane and His Brothers, The Spirit of Gambling, He Who Eats the Stinking Part of the Deer Ankle, The Chief of the Herok'a, Partridge's Older Brother, Warughápara, Wears White Feathers on His Head, Old Man and White Feathers, The Annihilation of the Hotcâgara, The Green Man; about bodiless heads: Hare Visits the Bodiless Heads, The Human Head, Bluehorn's Nephews, The Red Man, The Chief of the Herok'a.

Themes: a spirit is of a red color: Wears White Feathers on His Head, The Red Man, The Chief of the Herok'a.

Genealogy: Red Man.

Notes:

[1] Paul Radin, "The Red Man," [unpublished] Winnebago Notebooks (American Philosophical Society Library) #6, pp. 1-72; Paul Radin, "The Chief of the Heroka," [unpublished] Winnebago Notebooks (American Philosophical Society Library) #33, pp. 1-66.

[2] Paul Radin, "Wears White Feathers on His Head," [unpublished] Winnebago Notebooks (American Philosophical Society Library) #4, pp. 1-50.

[3] Paul Radin, "Redhorn's Nephews," Notebooks, Winnebago IV, #7, Freeman #3860 (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1908-1930) Story 7a.