James Wind was born in Ohio, the son of Notino, a respected tribal leader. He was raised in the traditional Ottawa faith, and his parents taught him the language, beliefs, and customs of the Ottawa people.

Wind survived removal from Ohio to Kansas, and in Kansas, Baptist missionary Jotham Meeker labored to convert the Ottawas. Wind’s half-brother, David Green (Shon-ge-wesh), became the first Ottawa to convert to Christianity under Meeker’s influence, and his example helped prepare Wind’s own path to conversion in his twenties.

Wind served in tribal and church leadership in the 1840s and 1850s. He took a leading part in negotiations for the Treaty of 1862 and became a founding trustee of Ottawa University. In the late 1860s, Wind joined with other tribal leaders to protect tribal members from theft and abuse at the hands of corrupt federal and school officials

Shortly after the Tribe’s move to Indian Territory, Wind was elected chief, and he simultaneously served as pastor of the Ottawa Indian Baptist Church. Upon his death in 1875, Wind became the second chief to be buried in the Ottawa Indian Cemetery, and he is interred in a sepulcher of hewn rock built by his family and friends.