Fort Dearborn

Commemorative bridge plaque

After the Fort Dearborn massacre of 1812, Robinson (who had just returned from a trip to Bailly's trading post) with Black Partridge, Waubonsie and Shabbona protected Kinzie and his family from hostile Wabash warriors. Robinson transported (by canoe) the Kinzie family to what became Chesterton, Indiana and the protection of (or house arrest under) Topinabee.^[9][10]

For the then-significant sum of $100, Robinson also undertook the dangerous mission of transporting the wounded U.S. Captain Nathan Heald and his wife Rebekah Wells (niece of former Indian Agent William Wells who died in the massacre)^[11] and Sergeant William Griffith by canoe (over two weeks) to the British fort on Mackinac Island, from where they eventually reached British-occupied Detroit, then Buffalo.^[12][13] Later, in 1814, Kinzie's half brother Robert Forsyth and other Americans would capture Bailly and three other pro-British traders at the St. Joseph River post, then Kinzie and his aide Jean Baptiste Chandonnai persuaded native leaders to an American-led conference at Greenville, Ohio which led to a treaty ending hostilities in the region.

Retrospective map showing how Chicago may have appeared in 1812(right is north)

Although Fort Dearborn had been destroyed shortly after the battle, Robinson and fellow trader Ouilmette farmed there before the fort was rebuilt in 1816. They then sold produce to the U.S. Army.^[14] Perhaps as early as 1814, and until 1825, Robinson had a trading post and farm somewhat away from the fort at Hardscrabble near the Chicago Portage. (After his release, Bially would establish the Joseph Bailly Homestead in what would later become the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore). During this period Robinson worked for various companies, including the American Fur Company under John Crafts and later the returned John Kinzie, until 1828 when Kinzie died and the American Fur Company left the region since fur-bearing animals had vanished not long after development of the steel trap. Late in that decade, Robinson also had a trading post at Wolf Point, and later had a tavern in Cook County.

Fort Dearborn as rebuilt in 1816

Treaty signatory

In 1816, because of his linguistic abilities, Robinson translated for various tribal chiefs in what became the Treaty of St. Louis, which modified the demarcation between lands open for white settlement and Indian Country set in the 1795 and 1814 Treaties of Greenville. This 1816 treaty became the first in which the Potawatomi sold land near their villages, in exchange receiving $1000 in merchandise annually for twelve years.^[15] Although the Greenville treaty only ceded the immediate area of Fort Dearborn for white settlement, further settlement would be authorized in the 1821 Treaty of Chicago.

As Indian Agent for the Great Lakes region, Dr. Alexander Wolcott Jr. facilitated the election of Robinson and his part-Potawatomi (some argue part-Mohawk) friend Billy Caldwell (who had fought for the British in the War of 1812) as Potawatomi chiefs by 1829 to fill vacant positions (Robinson succeeded his father-in-law Chevalier), so the Three Fires (or United Nations) Tribes could sign further cession treaties.^[16] The two mixed-race men thus represented the Chippewa, Ottawa and Potawatomi peoples in negotiating the Second Treaty of Prairie du Chien with the United States. By that year, the U.S. was working on Indian Removal as advocated by President Andrew Jackson; Congress soon passed the Indian Removal Act of 1830 to authorize the process. For his work in obtaining the 1829 treaty, the U.S. granted Robinson $200 annually and a 1600-acre tract, known as the Robinson Reserve, along the Des Plaines River but adjoining Caldwell's reserve along the North Branch of the Chicago River.^[17]

In the Blackhawk War of 1832, Robinson, Waubonsie and Aptakisic kept all the young warriors encamped near what became Riverside, Illinois as the womenfolk continued to farm; thus avoiding involvement in the conflict.^[18] Caldwell, despite helping the British in the prior conflict, led other Potawatomi as scouts to assist the U.S. Army.^[19]

Robinson and Caldwell also negotiated the 1833 Treaty of Chicago after natives lost the Blackhawk War. Wolcott had died and Thomas Owen became Indian Agent until that office closed in 1835. The treaty technically exchanged five million acres of Indian lands northeast of the Mississippi River for roughly equal acreage west of the river, with additional compensation.^[20] In fact, it led to the final Indian Removal from the region, although some like Robinson negotiated a right to remain on their property. Circa 1835, he and Caldwell migrated with their people from the Chicago region westward to Platte County, Missouri, but as Robinson returned to his reservation near Chicago, Caldwell, Shabbona and their people would later be moved again.^[21] The 1833 treaty initially provided Caldwell and Robinson each with $10,000, as well as a $400 lifetime annuity for Caldwell, and a $300 annually for Robinson, among other specific provisions. Before the U.S. Senate ratified the treaty in 1835, it reduced the two men's lump-sum payments to $5000 each, but left their annuities intact.^[22] Robinson and some other Métis remained in or returned to Illinois on their private tracts of land, but most of the United Nations Tribes removed to Missouri and then to Iowa.^[23]

Later years

By 1840, Robinson returned to the Chicago area,^[24] although he would later make visits to Kansas, as well as continue to entertain visiting Native Americans on his land.^[25] By 1845 he built a house on the Robinson Reserve in what later became Schiller Park near the future O'Hare Airport, and family members would also build nearby. In the 1850 census, Robinson farmed in what became Leyden Township and lived with his wife and some of their 11 children, including adult sons Joseph Robinson (1828-1884) and David Robinson (1830-1863) and daughters Cinthia Robinson (1837-) and their youngest, Mary Ann Robinson Ragor (1839-1904).^[26]

He had become a gentlemen farmer, although his children by his first wife remained to the north, and others moved out of the Chicago area. To note: Sasus the first wife was a full blood Menominee Indian she moved to the Menominee Indian Reservation most likely around 1854 or afterwards when the last treaty w/the Menominee was signed. Cheecheepinquay & Sasus daughter Wakohwapeh aka Margaret Robinson also moved with her Mother up North as referred above info. Up North meaning the Menominee Indian Reservation, where there are numerous descendants. His son David Robinson would die as a Union private in a military hospital in Murfreesboro, Tennessee during the American Civil War, but Robinson continued to regale visitors about meeting Abraham Lincoln long before. After the Great Chicago Fire, Robinson returned to the city to view the scene from the Lake Street bridge, reportedly exclaiming "Once more I can see the prairie of the past."^[27] Eventually, his youngest child, Mary Ann Robinson Ragor became the family matriarch into the 20th century.