Josie Billie's name appears in the field notes and recordings of Robert Solenberger and William Sturtevant. Robert Solenberger recorded field notes for anthropologist Frank G. Speck in December 1940, including conversations with Josie Billie related to Seminole language, myth, and customs. Later in 1950 and 1951, American ethnologist William Sturtevant began conducting fieldwork among the Miccosukee, and in 1952 began conducting fieldwork on the Big Cypress Reservation. Sturtevant met Josie Billie in the summer of 1950 and wrote his doctoral dissertation about Billie, who informed much of his research. Sturtevant noted that Billie was older than two of his other informants, Joseph Jumper and Chester Billie, and much more knowledgeable about Seminole tradition.
