On July, 30, 1763, during Pontiac’s Rebellion, amid all the fort sieges and small pox blankets, the Nain Rouge was supposedly sighted dancing and cavorting along the banks of the Detroit River, following alongside Capt. James Dalyell’s boat. The next day, Dalyell and his men were ambushed by Pontiac’s troops, who killed 20 Brits and wounded 34 others, causing the river to run red with blood.

In 1805, three years after the legislature of the Northwest Territory officially incorporated Detroit, multiple Nain Rouge sightings were allegedly reported. Then, on June 11, 1805, a stable fire burned the entire city to the ground.
These stories of the jaunty, smirking red gnome share a commonality that Nain Rouge tales, if recounted by a responsible author, all contain – “supposedly,” “allegedly” and the lack of even cursory information about the witness(es). This trend continues on through the decades as the swarthy dwarf makes appearance after non-specific appearance, with each visitation followed by a citywide tragedy. In short, it starts to feel less like the Nain Rouge is predicting disaster and more like disasters are predicting new Nain Rouge stories. Each person who, from the banks of a bloody river or the ashes of the city, declares that they saw the Nain Rouge adds a swath of flesh to the skeletal fairytale that crossed the Atlantic, until finally, the growing populace of a burgeoning metropolis has constructed a living monster to press into civil service.

For media reporting on a local tragedy, Nain Rouge sightings become diverting fluff pieces that can get snuck in between death tolls and damage-to-dollar conversions. They’re (marginally) topical and so thoroughly entangled with the city’s history, the reports almost validate the depth and severity of the human suffering that has taken place; after all, if the event weren’t a true and utter disaster, the Nain Rouge would not have appeared.

For the people, the Nain Rouge’s disaster-presaging existence and appearances can create communal comfort through the assurance that the events were unavoidable and that the city is on a path – chaos doesn’t reign, and Detroit survived every prior visitation of the creature with the fortitude and confidence to face him again. The Nain Rouge belongs to the city, and until the day he doesn’t arrive to smile and laugh and mock its defeats and misfortune, Detroit remains intact.

Friday: The Nain Rouge today

Twitter this