These arms are displayed on a red field to bespeak the Native Americans that inhabited and continue to live in the region that is now the Diocese of Kalamazoo. On this field is placed a silver (white) wavy bend (a bar that runs from upper left to lower right) that is the heraldic representation of water. This bend is strewn with a seme (a scattering of no specific number) of blue annulets to represent bubbles. This symbol represents the English equivalent of the Native American name Kalamazoo, which means "boiling pot," and is used to describe the Kalamazoo River because of the bubbles in the water.