Jim Billie

Who is Jim Billie?

James Edward Billie, known as “Chief Jim Billie” is a politician and Chairman of the Seminole Tribe of Florida, elected by nearly 60 percent of the voters in 2011. He was elected to successive terms as Chairman/President of the Seminole Tribe of Florida, serving 22 years in the "longest tenure of any elected leader in the Western Hemisphere, other than Fidel Castro." He was impeached in 2001 because of financial issues related to sexual misconduct.

In 2005 Sarasota Magazine called Chief Billie “the most powerful American Indian leader of the past century.” He is best known for leading the tribe when it won a United States Supreme Court 1996 decision upholding the sovereign rights of tribes to conduct gaming on their reservations. In 1999, a song on his album, Alligator Tales,was nominated for a Grammy award.