Opinion: Ottawa County Should Bring Back the Chief Seal—and Leave the Corporate Blob Behind
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In 2017, a well-meaning group of commissioners, eager to ride the wave of inclusiveness, hired a marketing firm to give the county a fresh coat of PR paint. Out went the traditional seal—a Native American chief that had represented the region for over a century. In came a corporate-feeling, abstract landscape logo and the slogan “Where You Belong.”

It was supposed to be forward-thinking. Inclusive. Progressive. But what we got instead was bland, forgettable, and—ironically—erasing.

The Chief wasn’t some dusty relic of the past. It acknowledged the region’s namesake—the Ottawa Tribe—and stood as a consistent symbol of place and heritage for generations.

And then came the change. A forgettable tree-sunset logo and a vague slogan that felt like it was pulled from a tech company HR handbook. “Where You Belong.” What does that even mean?

Progressives idealogs clung to it like a badge of honor, printing shirts that say “Where You Still Belong”—a jab at the conservatives who took control in 2022.

Ironically, in trying to be “inclusive,” the county effectively scrubbed the only visible tribute to its tribal heritage. The Chief was replaced by something that could belong to any suburb, anywhere. That’s not inclusion. That’s erasure. But the go long crowd went with it.

In 2023, a new conservative board—elected by a fed-up base—ditched “Where You Belong” and replaced it with “Where Freedom Rings” on day one. It was: a course correction. A clear message that Ottawa County wasn’t going to virtue-signal its way through governance anymore. Leadership was done with government overreach, "where freedom rings" was a stake in the ground to remind people.

On the same day the motto changed, the county swore in its first Black administrator, John Gibbs. He was later removed in 2024. This came after a year long public battle from old white people compliaing he didn't have epxeirence. Turns out they mmay

Some blamed Gibbs for Republicans losing Michigan’s 3rd Congressional District, but the loss had more to do with redistricting than anything he did. Still, he became the scapegoat—just another example of how political symbolism outweighs substance in the current climate.

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We’ve spent almost a decade arguing over marketing materials and mottos. Meanwhile, our real assets—the lakeshore, the farmland, the towns with character—have remained unchanged. No one moved to Zeeland or Spring Lake because of a swooshy new logo. They came for the quality of life.

So let’s stop pretending our bland branding defines us. Let’s stop treating graphic design as a moral battleground. And let’s stop erasing meaningful symbols in the name of hollow “progress.”

Bring back the Chief.

Not because it’s political. Not because it’s nostalgic. But because it reflects something real—a connection to history, to place, to the people who were here long before any PR firm tried to tell us where we “belong.”

It’s time to end the identity crisis. Ottawa County isn’t a brand. It’s a community. And it deserves symbols that actually mean something.

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