Levi Colbert (?-1834), also known as Itawamba, was a Native American of the Chickasaw. Colbert was called Itte-wamba Mingo, meaning bench chief. He and his brothers were prominent translators and negotiators with President Andrew Jackson and United States government representatives related to the tribe's moving west of the Mississippi River.
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One of six mixed-race sons of James Logan Colbert, a North Carolinian settler of Scots descent and his second wife, Chickasaw Minta Hoye, Levi Colbert was born in present-day Alabama. He grew up bilingual and was educated in both Chickasaw and western traditions.[1]
Levi Colbert and his brothers were prominent among the negotiators of the Chickasaw when meeting with US government officials. Although resistant, to keep peace, they signed a treaty requiring their removal west of the Mississippi. This treaty gave them only 25 cents per acre for their land, less than half that of which was first promised.
Colbert believed that the "half-breeds", descendants of white men who married into the Chickasaw tribe, were an "abomination". He worried that they hid within the tribe after going against the law, cared only for reservations and other things that would make them money, and lacked respect for the tribe.
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 being put into a deadly situation.
   | Refusal of the Chickasaws and Choctaws to Cede Their Lands in Mississippi : 1826 - The Avalon Project : Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy |
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