He became an ordained minister and was extremely influential in shifting the Seminole Tribe of Florida from traditional spiritual practices to the Baptist faith.

His mother died soon after he was born and his father returned to his clan who lived near Big Cypress, but the children remained in Brighton with their grandmother.

The chickee was an open-sided structure with corner support posts of cypress or palm logs, to which was secured a sleeping platform with a thatched roof of palmetto fronds.

[9] In 1943, a young pastor, Stanley Smith, arrived on the Dania (now Hollywood) Reservation to assist the Southern Baptist Church leadership.

[1] One of those young converts was Billy Osceola, who joined the church in 1945 and through the assistance of Smith, was able to obtain a scholarship to go to bible college.

[13] From 1–2 March 1954 Osceola and other tribal members testified at a Joint Hearing before the Subcommittees of the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs of the 83rd Congress.

On 4 April 1955, the tribe created a board of directors with the intent of forming a tribal organization before the Clewiston hearings which would begin in two days.

[11] One of the most pressing issues, after the official tribal organization was the settling of the Indian Claims Commission cases and Billy worked with the tribe's new attorney Roy L. Struble of Miami to reach a final settlement.

By 1967, he reported that Head Start was being offered to 2 to 5 year-olds on the Brighton, Big Cypress and Dania (now Hollywood) Reservations and that the children were making good progress with English.

[18] Osceola traveled throughout the state studying programs to alleviate poverty and assist students to bring down the 95% drop-out rate that existed at that time for the tribe.