 the drastic "Project or outline of a Treaty" which was submitted at the time, furnished a basis for future negotiations. Governor Colbert headed
the Chickasaw delegation which went to Washington in December, 1865 and on April 28, 1866 concluded and signed a final treaty
with the Government.8 This treaty which was entered into jointly with the Choctaws and which definitely disposed of the slavery question, also
contained optional provisions relating to the allotment of the tribal domains of these tribes, in severalty. Upon his return
from Washington in the summer of 1866, Governor Colbert strongly counselled allotment and on November 9, 1866, the Chickasaw
legislature passed an act in accordance with the provisions of Article Eleven of the Act of 1866, consenting to and authorizing
the allotment in severalty of the Chickasaw domain. This effort of the Chickasaws was postponed because of the refusal of
the Choctaws to join in the venture. Later and in 1872, the Chickasaw legislature requested the Government to proceed with
allotment but Secretary of the Interior Delano ruled that it could not be done in the absence of consent by the Choctaws.
It is worthy of comment that the Chickasaws were the first of the Five Tribes to consent to allotment although this consent
was subsequently withdrawn. The vision of Governor Colbert was far in advance of the period in which he lived although it
is most probable that the allotment of the tribal domain at that early date would have been very premature.
The tenure of Governor Colbert drew to a close in the fall of 1866 and the ever popular Cyrus Harris again resumed the executive
chair. The retiring governor had rendered a conscientious service and had led the Chickasaws through two years of war and
a trying period of negotiations for reconciliation. He brought no dishonor to the Colbert name. Upon his retirement he resumed
his residence upon his farm at Oil Springs and never again sought to reenter the political arena, although he did serve thereafter
as a member of the tribal senate and did make numerous trips to Washington
as a representative of his tribe. He disposed of his Oil Springs home to Thomas Boyd9 in the spring of 1877 and the place became known thereafter as Boyd's Oil Springs. A suggestion of conditions which may have
provoked the old governor to make this sale is contained in the issue of the Star Vindicator of McAlester, I. T., of May 5, 1877, which states, "Gov. Winchester. Colbert, we learn, has moved to Atoka County, Choctaw
Nation, because of so much stealing and disturbance in the Chickasaw Nation." The disordered situation must have cleared up
because the governor and his wife Annica later returned to the Chickasaw Nation and thereafter made their home with their
son Humphrey Colbert upon his farm10 some two and one-half miles west of the present town of Frisco, Johnston County, Oklahoma where the governor passed away
in the fall of 1880 and where he rests in a family burying ground, his grave being rather crudely marked. After the death
of the governor, Annica Kemp his widow went to live in the home of Thomas Boyd at the old Oil Springs home where she was cared
for and where she passed away. She lies buried in the family graveyard at Boyd's Oil Springs where her grave is marked, "Annica,
wife of W. Colbert, died May 25, 1884."11
Governor Colbert was reared a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church but later joined the Methodist Church, South. Thanks
to the interest of Thomas L. McKenney, he had enjoyed educational advantages far beyond the average of his people at that
time. He understood, spoke and wrote both the English and Chickasaw languages. The atmosphere of the Civil War with its resultant
lawless conditions provoked a headache for the mild tempered
governor. When the hostilities were concluded, he hastened to the peace front but with no hatred nor hostility in his heart.
He was glad the war was over and with a cool philosophy accepted the altered status provoked by the war and omitted no effort
to adjust his people to the requirements of the Governm