Alexander Robinson | |
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Born | Che-che-pin-quay c. 1789 |
Died | April 22, 1872 |
Nationality | Odawa, American, Potawatomi |
Occupation(s) | fur trader, farmer |
Known for | Rescued victims of the Fort Dearborn Massacre; translator during Treaty of St. Louis (1816); Potawatomi chieftain during the Second Treaty of Prairie du Chien (1829), Blackhawk War and Treaty of Chicago (1833) |
Alexander Robinson (1789 – April 22, 1872) (also known as Che-che-pin-quay or The Squinter), was a British-Ottawa chief born on Mackinac Island who became a fur trader and ultimately settled near what later became Chicago. Multilingual in Odawa, Potawatomi, Ojibwa (or Chippewa), English and French, Robinson also helped evacuate survivors of the Fort Dearborn Massacre in 1812.[1] In 1816, Robinson was a translator for native peoples during the Treaty of St. Louis. He became a Potawatomi chief in 1829 and in that year and in 1833, he and fellow Metis Billy Caldwell negotiated treaties on behalf of the United Nations of Ottawa, Chippewa, and Potawatomi with the United States. Although Robinson helped lead Native Americans across the Mississippi River in 1835, unlike Caldwell, Robinson returned to the Chicago area by 1840 and lived as a respected citizen in western Cook County until his death decades later.