Red Woman
Crow · numen · creation time · Recorded classification
Red Woman (recorded by Lowie as Hi'cictawi'a, modern orthography Hisshishtawia) is the chief malevolent figure of Crow narrative. Unlike trickster figures she kills purely for malice: in the twin-hero cycle she murders a pregnant woman, casting one child behind the tipi curtain and the other into a spring, and in the Old Woman's Grandchild cycle she is among the monsters the hero must destroy. Her defeat by the hero twins or by Old Woman's Grandchild marks the cleansing of the world for human beings.
Domains
- malevolence
- witchcraft
Powers
- to deceive, murder, and mutilate her victims through malevolent power
Sources
- Red Woman (Hisshishtawia) is the principal ogress and villain of Crow hero tales, slain in different variants by Old Woman's Grandchild or by the twin heroes.: Robert H. Lowie, Myths and Traditions of the Crow Indians, Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History 25(1), 1918 (secondary); Timothy P. McCleary, The Stars We Know: Crow Indian Astronomy and Lifeways, Waveland Press, 1997 (secondary)