Nain Rouge
legendary creature of the Detroit, Michigan, area
The Nain Rouge (French for "red dwarf") is a legendary creature of the Detroit, Michigan area whose appearance is said to presage misfortune for the white settlers of the area. There are no records that indicate the legend of the Nain Rouge existed prior to the 1880s.
According to various narratives surrounding the figure, Detroit's founder Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac was told by a fortuneteller to appease the Nain Rouge, but he instead attacked it with his cane and shouted, "Get out of my way, you red imp!" As a consequence, a string of bad luck befell Cadillac; he was charged with abuse of power and reassigned to Louisiana, later returning to France where he was briefly imprisoned and eventually lost his fortune. The Nain Rouge is also known as "the Demon of the Strait."
The Nain Rouge legend has become part of contemporary Detroit culture. There are several alcoholic drinks named after the Nain Rouge, and the legend has been the basis for the film Devil's Night: Dawn of the Nain Rouge and a series of multiple artworks by Eric Millikin. Each Spring, there is an event called the Marche du Nain Rouge where hundreds of people chase a person dressed as the Nain Rouge out of the city and then burn the Nain Rouge in effigy.
Legend
The Nain Rouge first appeared in Marie Caroline Watson Hamlin's 1883 book Legends of Le Détroit, where she described the Nain Rouge as a dwarf, "very red in the face, with a bright, glistening eye," and with "a grinning mouth displaying sharp, pointed teeth". The Nain Rouge was then included in Charles M. Skinner's 1896 book Myths And Legends Of Our Own Land, described as "a shambling, red-faced creature, with a cold, glittering eye and teeth protruding from a grinning mouth."
Legend holds that Nain Rouge's appearance would presage terrible events for the white people of the city, and foretell success for the Indigenous People. The creature is said to have appeared on July 30, 1763 before the Battle of Bloody Run, where 58 British soldiers were killed by Native Americans from Chief Pontiac's Ottawa tribe. Supposedly, the Nain Rouge "danced among the corpses" on the banks of the Detroit River after the battle, and the river "turned red with blood" for days after.
The public source identifies “Nain Rouge” as legendary creature of the Detroit, Michigan, area. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Nain, Rouge and legendary.
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This entry incorporates text from “Nain Rouge” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.