Levi Colbert
Levi Colbert (1759–1834), also known as Itawamba in Chickasaw, was a leader and chief of the Chickasaw nation. Colbert was called Itte-wamba Mingo, meaning bench chief. He and his brother George Colbert were prominent interpreters and negotiators with United States negotiators in the early decades of the 19th century. They were appointed by President Andrew Jackson's administration to gain cession of their lands and arrange for removal of their people to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River. They were under considerable pressure from the Mississippi state government, white interlopers in their area, and the federal government to cede their lands. Levi Colbert (Itawamba) worked most closely with US Indian Agent John Dabney Terrell, Sr. of Marion County, Alabama. The Chickasaw negotiated hard; after their representatives initially surveyed the lands offered in the West, they returned saying it was unacceptable. The Chickasaw worked to gain more approval over their future lands. Early life and education Levi Colbert was born in 1759 as one of six sons of James Logan Colbert (1721 - 1784), a North Carolinian of Scots ancestry, and his second wife Sopha Minta Hoye, a Choctaw woman. Colbert, known in Chickasaw as Itawamba, was born in Muscle Shoals,