Haunting of the Native Burial Ground in Robinson Woods

The Noble Deeds of Chee-chee-pin-quay

Alexander Robinson, chief of multiple Native American tribes, played a crucial role in saving lives during the Fort Dearborn Massacre. This was his English name though and he was really named chief Chee-chee-pin-quay of the Potawatomi, born in 1787 with a Chippewa mother and a Scottish father.

After he helped save the white settlers in the massacre, he was also a translator and negotiator between the settlers and the natives. In gratitude, the land was bestowed upon him in 1872 with the assurance that he and his family would rest there for eternity. However, the city reneged on its commitment, breaking the promise to bury Robinson and his kin within the woods.

The Native American Burial Land

Many sources state that it was because Robinson himself was denied burial on his land, but this is not true, he was. In the forest there are two large stones marking his final resting place together with his family. Although, the true story of what happened after is much more upsetting.

**Burial Ground:** Although the headstones of the graves was lost for a long time, big stones marks the burial ground inside of Robinson Woods. // Source

His family and descendants continued to live on his land, and at his homestead for decades. This was until 1955 when a fire broke out and burned the family home down. His granddaughter, Mary Boettcher had no means to rebuild their home and had to live elsewhere, thereby relinquishing their family claim to their land.

The same year three boys were found dead in the Robinson wood that would go unsolved for 40 years. Around this time, tales of paranormal sightings became rampant. It isn’t really said that the murder has anything to do with the haunting, but after the murders as well as what happened with the Robinson Homestead and Burial Ground, people started to talk about the strange things happening in the woods.

In 1973 The Forest Preserve District didn’t allow anyone else to get buried on their family burial and when Robinson’s stone was taken to be restored, it was lost for years until it returned to the family in 2016. It turned out that it was The Forest Preserve District that had the headstones in storage all along, as the stones were so frequently vandalized.

The Haunting inside of the Forest

Legend has it that Robinson’s spirit, denied its rightful resting place to his people, lingers among the ancient trees, casting an otherworldly presence upon the woods. Visitors have reported a pervasive feeling of an unseen entity, an unexplainable heaviness that hangs in the air. As daylight surrenders to the night, the forest awakens with spectral activity — mysterious knocks echoing through the trees, distant screams haunting the stillness, and elusive dark shadows that dance in the moonlight. Even the sound of the tom-toms drums have been heard according to reports.

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Some claim to have encountered apparitions that vanish as quickly as they appear, leaving behind an eerie silence. Some even claim to have seen strange lights, or mist and even smelled violet and lavender, even when it was in the middle of winter.

On Haunted Holy Land in Robinson Woods

Robinson Woods, now a tranquil forest preserve, conceals within its depths a tale of broken promises and a chief’s unsettled spirit. As the whispers of the haunted past persist, those who traverse the winding trails of Robinson Woods may find themselves caught between the realms of the living and the spectral, where the legacy of Alexander Robinson and the enigmatic haunting of the woods endure.