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While Between Two Fires is my first book, I am a widely published author of various articles, Op-ed pieces and columns in a myriad of newspapers, journals, and other periodicals.  Most of these works are focused on business, banking and finance (see Professional Bio below). However, I’ve written a number of opinion pieces and featured columns over the years. Currently, I write a monthly column called Sour Sofkee for Native Oklahoma Magazine under the pen name Fus Yvhikv.

My next book will be about the federal Dawes Commission. It was that commission which decided who was Indian and who wasn’t and thus who received lands allotments and who didn’t. My book will explore the complex and Byzantine tasks of identifying eligible tribal members for enrollment as well as the skullduggery, bribery and outright fraud involved in the construction of the Dawes Rolls.

My Professional Bio

Mr. Colbert (Muscogee-Creek/Chickasaw) is the nation’s most recognized and foremost expert on matters related to commercial banking and Indian tribes. Since 1987 he has assisted Indian tribes in starting or acquiring various types of banks and financial institutions.  

During his 30+ year career, Mr. Colbert has served as president/CEO of three different banks; a board member of five banks; Founding Executive Director of the North American Native Bankers Association (an association of Native-owned banks in the US and Canada). He has assisted over a dozen Indian tribes in acquiring or starting commercial banks.

Mr. Colbert served a White House appointment to the Board of the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund at the U.S. Treasury and he has actively assisted many Indian tribes and Native groups to start Community Development Financial Institutions.

Colbert has managed over $22 billion under the US Treasury’s Troubled Asset Relief Program (a/k/a the Bank Bailout Bill) and was a board member of a $13 billion pension fund and formerly served as Deputy Assistant Secretary – Bureau of Indian Affairs for Economic Development where his duties included overseeing the $3 billion Indian Trust Fund and the BIA Loan Guaranty Fund.

Mr. Colbert began his career as a Bank Examiner for the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. As such, he was the first Native American federal bank examiner in the history of the U.S. bank regulation system.