White Pigeon: The Chief Who Ran to Save His Neighbors

The village of White Pigeon takes its name from a Potawatomi chief called Wahbememe, which translates to White Pigeon in English. The story passed down is this: Wahbememe was attending a council of chiefs in Detroit when he heard plans forming to attack the small American settlement back home. He was a friend to those settlers.

He left the council and ran one hundred fifty miles back to warn them. The run killed him. He collapsed on arrival and died from exhaustion.

His remains are buried in the village that now bears his name, and the burial site is on the National Register of Historic Places. The village itself was established in eighteen thirty-seven, built on Potawatomi land that the federal government sold off the same decade for a dollar and twenty-five cents an acre.