Levi Colbert

"Itawamba" redirects here. For other uses, see Itawamba (disambiguation).

Main article: Chickasaw

Levi Colbert (1759-1834), also known as Itawamba, was a leader and chief of the Chickasaw in the American Southeast. Colbert was called Itte-wamba Mingo, meaning bench chief. He and his brother George Colbert were prominent interpreters and negotiators with President Andrew Jackson's appointed negotiators related to the tribe's ceding its lands and moving west of the Mississippi River.

Early life and education

One of six mixed-race sons of James Logan Colbert, a North Carolinian settler of Scots descent and his second wife Minta Hoye, a Chickasaw, Levi Colbert was born in present-day Alabama. He and his siblings grew up bilingual and were educated in both Chickasaw and European-American traditions. As the Chickasaw were matrilineal, the children were considered to belong to the mother's clan. They gained their status through her, as hereditary leadership for males was passed through the maternal line.

Removal

Levi Colbert and his brother George Colbert were prominent among the negotiators of the Chickasaw when meeting with US government officials related to treaties and removal. Although opposed to the Indian Removal Act of 1830, in a treaty meeting with General John Coffee and other United States representatives in November 1832, to keep peace, the Chickasaw chiefs of the council signed a treaty based on the tribe's removal west of the Mississippi River to Indian Territory. This treaty gave them only 25 cents per acre for their land, less than half that which was first promised.

In a long letter to President Andrew Jackson that November, Colbert noted the many complaints the chiefs had with the resulting treaty. Among their comments were a restatement of their position, and their belief that General Coffee had ignored their comments and viewpoints. They had wanted the tribe to keep control of money resulting from sale of their lands, they were not ready to choose land in Indian Territory, they did not want to share a reservation in Indian Territory with "half-breeds", and were dismayed at the way they had been treated by General Coffee. More than 40 chiefs who had attended the treaty council signed the letter with Colbert. They were chiefs of the clans and leading villages.

Colbert had been ill during the meeting and unable to attend all the sessions. He died in 1834, years before his people finally agreed to a treaty and removed to Indian Territory.

Intra-tribal conflict

Colbert did not want conflict; he wanted peace with the US government, even if it meant giving up his people's land. He wished to obtain the most for his nation during negotiations, as they were pressured by increasing conflict by encroaching European-American settlers. He was very concerned that the government was treating equally with mixed-race men he called "half-breeds"; although he was of mixed descent, he was firmly within the Chickasaw culture. He believed there were white men who married into the people just to try to get control of land, and by the 1830s, they were ignoring traditional practices and the tribe's recognized chiefs in seeking personal gain.

Legacy

Several places were named after him:

• Itawamba County, Mississippi
• Colbert's Spring, Alabama
• Colbert County, Alabama was named after him and his brother George Colbert.

See also

• Colbert County, Alabama
• George Colbert, his brother
• Holmes Colbert, his nephew and writer of the Chickasaw Constitution
• Trebloc, Mississippi, in Chickasaw County, Mississippi

Further reading

• "Refusal of the Chickasaws and Choctaws to Cede Their Lands in Mississippi: 1826", Yale University
• Kerry M. Armstrong, compiler, Chickasaw Historical Research Website, includes numerous primary sources, including some dating to before Removal
• Owen, Thomas McAdory; Owen, Marie (1921). History of Alabama and Dictionary of Alabama Biography. S.J. Clarke Publishing Company. pp. 302. http://books.google.com/books?id=Tld5AAAAMAAJ.