Great Leader: George Colbert (Tootemastubbe) of the Chickasaw

The Five Civilized Tribes were called so by their White neighbors, who saw the efforts of the Natives to assimilate to White culture.  This acknowledgement of civilization did not prevent the members of these tribes from being driven from their land.  Through that turbulent period, each of the tribes was fortunate to have men who could bridge both the White and Native worlds. 

George Colbert (1764-1839) was born in what is now Alabama, the son of a North Carolina settler of Scots dissent and his Chickasaw wife.  As with other mixed-race children, George clung to his mother's heritage.  Her family would insure his status within the tribe and provide his warrior's training, while his Scottish father provided what was then termed an "English education".  George first saw service leading Chickasaw auxiliaries under Arthur St. Clair in (1791) and Anthony Wayne in (1794).  Indeed, through much of the so-called "Indian Wars" Chickasaw fought as allies of the Americans, rather than against them.  When the War of 1812 broke out, George raised a militia troop of 350 Chickasaw warriors to fight with Andrew Jackson against the Red Stick Creeks and throughout the remained of Jackson's New Orleans campaign.

During peacetime, George married three times and fathered six sons and two daughters.  He established a ferry over the Tennessee River near what is now Cherokee, Alabama, a crossing-point on the Natchez Trace.  He became a planter, owning African slaves, and a livestock breeder.  He and his brothers, Levi and James, were signatories to treaties between the Chickasaw and the United States government, ceding land in exchange for peace with the White settlers who continued to encroach on Choctaw land.  None of their attempts to reconcile with Whites was to any avail.  In 1839, months before his death, George would lead his people on their own Trail of Tears.  Prior to leaving, he married his youngest daughter to a White man so that she would not have to make the journey. 

Colbert County, Alabama was named for George and Levi Colbert.  Old pictures exist of George's original home in Alabama, which has since been torn down.