He spent the next ten years teaching school and coaching athletics in Ravia, Caddo, and Shattuck, Oklahoma.
Concerned about the poor state of health care facilities for the Chickasaws, James began to campaign for improvements and funding from the Federal Government.
He lobbied officials of the Indian Health Service (IHS) and the Speaker of the U. S. House of Representatives, Carl Albert.
By 1968, IHS opened a clinic in Tishomingo, Oklahoma, the first health care facility in the Chickasaw Nation.
[1] James was said to have opened every meeting he attended or every speech he made as governor by saying, “I bring you greetings from the great unconquered and unconquerable Chickasaw Nation”.
[3] In 1989, the Philadelphia Inquirer published a story indicating that Overton James received $94,000 in kickbacks for helping Kraig Kendall, a Shawnee, Oklahoma builder, acquire about $14 million in contracts to perform construction work for the Chickasaw Nation.
[5] Overton James admitted that his company received the money and was sentenced to 9 months in a federal prison in January 1989.