Indigenous Connections to the Land

As part of a Lake Forest city-wide initiative focusing on Native American Voices, Lake Forest Open Lands and the LF/LB History Center offer a three part lecture series on local indigenous history and the unique ways that the native people who came before us used the land.

Join Chicagoland Archaeologist and Robinson Family Historian Dan Melone and Verlyn Spreeman, descendant of Chief Robinson, as they discuss the historic and continuing importance of the Robinson Family Cemetery. Using recently uncovered documentary evidence, this lecture explores changes in cemetery boundaries and use through time and outlines a chronological framework for understanding cultural and natural impacts to the cemetery and surrounding landscape, and identifying grave occupants and the physical layout of the cemetery.

Background Information

In August of 2015, the original headstones of Chief Alexander Robinson, Catherine Chevalier, and David Robinson were recovered by archaeologist Dan Melone, Robinson historian and descendant Verlyn Spreeman, and historian/author Scott Markus. Originally marking family graves in Robinson Woods located in a forest preserve in Chicago, the stones have been returned to Robinson family descendants, having been missing for generations. The stones are one of the most important historical finds in Chicago's recent years.

For more information on the Native Voices initiative, visit www.lfola.org/native-voices

This program is co-sponsored by the History Center and Lake Forest Open Lands.