Ben Barnes

About Ben

• My father was a member of our traditional religious community, so I was brought into that at a very young age.
• After high school, I immediately went to work in Indian gaming, which was a brand new industry at the time.
• I spent over two and a half decades in the Indian gaming industry, starting as a bingo worker and ultimately working my way up to Director of Tribal Gaming.
• No matter what hardships I went through, our traditional religious community was always there—that support and community inspired me to start thinking about joining our tribal government.
• In 2012 I became second chief of the Shawnee Tribe and served over seven years in that role before becoming chief.
• Now I currently serve the Shawnee Tribe as the elected chief of the Tribal Council.