THE WILD PIGEON OF NORTH AMERICA. 
BY CHIEF POKAGON.* 
T HE migratory or wild pigeon of North 
America was known by our race as 
o-me-me-wog. Why the European 
race did not accept that name was, no 
doubt, because the bird so much resembled 
the domesticated pigeon; they naturally 
called it a wild pigeon, as they called us 
wild men. 
This remarkable bird differs from the 
dove or domesticated pigeon, which was im- 
ported into this country, in the grace of its 
long neck, its slender bill and legs, and its 
narrow wings. Its length is 
1 6^ inches. Its tail is eight 
inches long, having twelve 
feathers, white on the un- 
der side. The two center 
feathers are longest, while 
five arranged on either side 
diminish gradually each 
one half inch in length, giv- 
ing to the tail when spread 
an almost conical appear- 
ance. Its back and upper 
part of the wings and head 
are a darkish blue, with a 
silken velvety appearance. 
Its neck is resplendent in 
gold and green with royal purple intermixed. 
Its breast is reddish brown, fading toward 
the belly into white. Its tail is tipped with 
*Simon Pokagon, of Michigan, is a full-blooded Indian, the 
last Pottawattamie chief of the Pokagon band. He is author of 
the “ Red Man’s Greeting,” and has been called by the press 
the “ Redskin poet, bard, and Longfellow of his race.” His 
father, chief before him, sold the site of Chicago and the sur- 
rounding country to the United States in 1833 for three cents an 
acre. He was the first red man to visit President Lincoln after 
his inauguration. In a letter written home at the time he said : 
“ I have met Lincoln, the great chief ; he is very tall, has a sad 
face, but he is a good man, I saw it in his eyes and felt it in his 
hand-shaking. He will help us get payment for Chicago land.” 
Soon after $39,000 was paid. In 1874 he visited President 
Grant. He said of him: “ I expected he would put on military 
importance, but he treated me kindly, gave me a cigar, and we 
smoked the pipe of peace together.” In 1893 he procured judg- 
ment against the United States for over $100,000 still due on the 
sale of Chicago land by his father. He was honored on Chicago 
Day at the World’s Fair by first ringing the new Bell of Liberty 
and speaking in behalf of his race to the greatest crowd ever 
assembled on earth. After his speech “ Glory Hallelujah ” was 
sung before the bell for the first time on the Fair grounds. 
CHIEF SIMON POKAGON 
white, intermixed with bluish black. The 
female is one inch shorter than the male, 
and her color less vivid. 
It was proverbial with our fathers that if 
the Great Spirit in His wisdom could have 
created a more elegant bird in plumage, 
form, and movement, He never did. 
When a young man I have stood for 
hours admiring the movements of these 
birds. I have seen them fly in unbroken 
lines from the horizon, one line succeeding 
another from morning until night, moving 
their unbroken columns like 
an army of trained soldiers 
pushing to the front, while 
detached bodies of these 
birds appeared in different 
parts of the heavens, press- 
ing forward in haste like 
raw recruits preparing for 
battle. At other times I have 
seen them move in one un- 
broken column for hours 
across the sky, like some 
great river, ever varying in 
hue; and as the mighty 
stream, , sweeping on at 
sixty miles an hour, 
reached some deep valley, it would pour its 
living mass headlong down hundreds of 
feet, sounding as though a whirlwind was 
abroad in the land. I have stood by the 
grandest waterfall of America and regarded 
the descending torrents in wonder and as- 
tonishment, yet never have my astonish- 
ment, wonder, and admiration been so stirred 
as when I have witnessed these birds drop 
from their course like meteors from heaven. 
While feeding, they always have guards 
on duty, to give alarm of danger. It is 
made by the watch bird as it takes its flight, 
beating its wings together in quick succes- 
sion, sounding like the rolling beat of a 
snare drum. Quick as thought each bird 
repeats the alarm with a thundering sound, 
THE WILD PIGEON OF NORTH AMERICA. 
203 
as the flock struggles to rise, leading a 
stranger to think a young cyclone is then 
being born. 
I have visited many of the roosting places 
of these birds, where the ground under the 
great forest trees for thousands of acres 
was covered with branches torn from the 
parent trees, some from eight to ten 
inches in diameter. At such a time so 
much confusion of sound is caused by the 
breaking of limbs and the continual flutter- 
ing and chattering that a gun fired a few 
feet distant cannot be heard, while to 
converse so as to be understood is almost 
impossible. 
About the middle of May, 1850, while in 
the fur trade, I was camping on the head 
waters of the Manistee River in Michigan. 
One morning on leaving my wigwam I was 
startled by hearing a gurgling, rumbling 
sound, as though an army of horses laden 
with sleigh bells was advancing through 
the deep forests toward me. As I listened 
more intently I concluded that instead of 
the tramping of horses it was distant thun- 
der; and yet the morning was clear, calm, 
and beautiful. Nearer and nearer came 
the strange commingling sounds of sleigh- 
bells, mixed with the rumbling of an ap- 
proaching storm. While I gazed in wonder 
and astonishment, I beheld moving toward 
me in an unbroken front millions of pigeons, 
the first I had seen that season. They 
passed like a cloud through the branches 
of the high trees, through the underbrush 
and over the ground, apparently overturning 
every leaf. Statuelike I stood, half con- 
cealed by cedar boughs. They fluttered all 
about me, lighting on my head and shoul- 
ders; gently I caught two in my hands 
and carefully concealed them under my 
blanket. 
I now began to realize they were mating, 
preparatory to nesting. It was an event which 
I had long hoped to witness ; so I sat down 
and carefully watched their movements, 
amid the greatest tumult. I tried to under- 
stand their strange language, and why they 
all chatted in concert. In the course of the 
day the great on-moving mass passed by 
me, but the trees were still filled with them 
sitting in pairs in convenient crotches of the 
limbs, now and then gently fluttering their 
half spread wings and uttering to their mates 
those strange bell-like wooing notes which 
I had mistaken for the ringing of bells in 
the distance. 
On the third day after, this chattering 
ceased and all were busy carrying sticks 
with which they were building nests in the 
same crotches of the limbs they had oc- 
cupied in pairs the day before. On the 
morning of the fourth day their nests were 
finished and eggs laid. The hen birds oc- 
cupied the nests in the morning, while the 
male birds went out into the surrounding 
country to feed, returning about ten o’clock, 
taking the nests, while the hens went out to 
feed, returning about three o’clock. Again 
changing nests, the male birds went out the 
second time to feed, returning at sun- 
down. The same routine was pursued each 
day until the young ones were hatched and 
nearly half grown, at which time all the 
parent birds left the brooding grounds about 
daylight. On the morning of the eleventh 
day after the eggs were laid I found the 
nesting grounds strewn with egg shells, con- 
vincing me that the young were hatched. 
In thirteen days more the parent birds left 
their young to shift for themselves, flying to 
the east about sixty miles, when they again 
nested. The female lays but one egg 
during the same nesting. 
Both sexes secrete in their crops milk or 
curd with which they feed their young, until 
they are nearly ready to fly, when they stuff 
them with mast and such other raw material 
as they themselves eat, until their crops ex- 
ceed their bodies in size, giving to them an 
appearance of two birds with one head. 
Within two days after the stuffing they 
become a mass of fat, “ a squab.” At this 
period the parent bird drives them from 
the nests to take care of themselves, while 
they , fly off within a day or two, sometimes 
hundreds of miles, and again nest. 
It has been well established that these 
birds look after and take care of all orphan 
squabs whose parents have been killed or are 
missing. These birds are long lived, having 
been known to live twenty-five years caged. 
