The eponymous spirit chief of the Pigeon Clan, a clan in the Upper or Bird Moiety. His speed once won him the right to the chieftainship of the Hotcâgara, but he declined to accept it out of modesty. [1]

The name of the pigeon [left inset], rutcge, means, "the edible one." [2]

Links: Thunderbirds, Elk (II), Bird Spirits, Black Hawk.

Stories: featuring Pigeon as a character: Pigeon Clan Origins, Origin of the Hotcâk Chief, Hotcâk Clans Origin Myth, Bird Spirits, The Creation Council, The Creation of Man V. 2; mentioning pigeons: Pigeon Clan Origins, Thunderbird Clan Origin Myth V. 1, Warughápara, The Twins Disobey Their Father, The Lost Blanket, How the Thunders Met the Nights, Bird Origin Myth, Origin of the Hotcâk Chief, The Creation Council, Hotcâk Clans Origin Myth, The Creation of Man V. 2, The Boy who was Captured by the Bad Thunderbirds, Gottschall: A New Interpretation; about Bird Spirits: Crane and His Brothers, The King Bird, Bird Origin Myth, Wears White Feathers on His Head, Old Man and White Feathers, The Boy who was Captured by the Bad Thunderbirds, The Thunderbird, The Boy Who Became a Robin, Partridge's Older Brother, The Woman who Loved Her Half-Brother, The Foolish Hunter, Ocean Duck, Earthmaker Sends Rucewe to the Twins, The Quail Hunter, Baldheaded Warclub Origin Myth, The Hotcâk Arrival Myth, Trickster Gets Pregnant, Trickster and the Geese, Holy One and His Brother (blackbirds, woodpeckers, hawks), Porcupine and His Brothers (Ocean Sucker), Turtle's Warparty (Thunderbirds, eagles, kaghi, pelicans, sparrows), The Dipper (Thunderbirds, kingfishers, hummingbirds, black hawks), Kaghíga and Lone Man (kaghi), The Old Man and the Giants (kaghi, bluebirds), The Bungling Host (snipe, woodpecker), The Red Feather, Eagle Clan Origin Myth, Trickster, the Wolf, the Turtle, and the Meadow Lark, Warughápara, The Race for the Chief's Daughter, Black and White Moons, The Markings on the Moon, The Creation Council, He Who Eats the Stinking Part of the Deer Ankle, Earthmaker Blesses Wagícega (Wecgícega), Hare Acquires His Arrows, Hotcâk Clans Origin Myth, Wonághire Wâkcik Clan Origin Myth, The Hotcâk Migration Myth, Blue Jay, The Baldness of the Buzzard, The Abduction and Rescue of Trickster (turkey buzzard), The Shaggy Man (blackbirds), The Medicine Rite Foundation Myth (blackbirds), Spear Shaft and Lacrosse, Îtcorúcika and His Brothers (Loon), Great Walker's Medicine (loon), Roaster (woodsplitter), The Spirit of Gambling, The Big Stone (a partridge), Trickster's Anus Guards the Ducks, The Green Man (owls), The Journey to Spiritland (v. 4) -- see also Thunderbirds, and the sources cited there.

Notes:

[1] Felix White, Sr. (Wolf Clan), "Origin of the Winnebago Chief," in David Lee Smith, Folklore of the Winnebago Tribe (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997) 17.

[2] Mary Carolyn Marino, A Dictionary of Winnebago: An Analysis and Reference Grammar of the Radin Lexical File (Ph.D. Thesis, University of California, Berkeley, December 14, 1968 [69-14,947]) pp. 379-380, ss vv rutc, rutcge.