Billy Jack Shotpouch resides in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, the capital of the Cherokee Nation. He is a tribal citizen and a direct descendant of Cherokee Billy Shotpouch, a cowboy who roamed the prairies of the Cooweescowee District, and Jack Shotpouch, a soldier of the Second Indian Home Guard, who served in the Union Army between 1862 and 1865. Shotpouch’s regiment was known as the Keetoowah Warriors due to its close association with a society formed to uphold the traditions of ancient Cherokee culture preserved from their mountain homelands in the Southeast.

Billy Jack Shotpouch moved to Oklahoma in 2018, after a career spanning nearly forty years in the technology industry in and around San Francisco, California, where he worked for Hewlett-Packard and several other large computer firms as a technical program manager. Other family members accompanied Shotpouch in his move to the Cherokee Nation, including his parents, Billy and Joyce Keys, and his son, Henry.

Shotpouch is also a member of the Oklahoma Chapter Trail of Tears Association and the Cherokee Cornstalk Shooter’s Society.