Chief Jim Billie

Chief Jim Billie ranks among the most influential Native Americans of the late 20th century. Since 1979 he has chaired Florida’s 2000-member Seminole tribe in the southern part of the state, leading the effort that made the Seminoles the first Native American group to open a gaming operation on sovereign territory. The tribe’s casino now generates more than 150 million dollars annually, placing the Seminoles among the most financially secure tribes in the United States.

At the same time Billie built a thriving career in music. The First Americans in the Arts Council honored him with its outstanding musical achievement award in 1999. His second album, Alligator Tales, examined daily existence in the Everglades wetlands through song. A clip drawn from one of its tracks screened at the Sundance Film Festival that same year and earned a nomination for Best Music Video at the American Indian Film Festival in San Francisco. Producer John McEuen, onetime leader of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, observed that Billie’s “songs are universal themes from his unusual point of view and make a perfect bridge between all cultures.”

Born of mixed ancestry on the grounds of a South Florida tourist attraction and raised by his grandparents, Billie was singing by age three and later taught himself guitar as a teenager. After serving as a paratrooper in Vietnam he returned to Florida and entered tribal politics. Though arrested in 1982 for violating the Federal Endangered Species Act after killing a Florida panther, he was acquitted once he established that his actions followed Seminole custom. Even while directing tribal affairs, Billie has kept performing with his band, the Shack Daddies.