Jim Boyd, singer and chairman of the Colville tribes, walks on

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) – Singer-songwriter Jim Boyd, who is also chairman of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, has died of natural causes. He was 60.

Boyd began playing guitar as a child.

The Spokesman-Review says he began writing his own music when he was in his 30s, and contributed songs to the soundtrack of the 1998 film “Smoke Signals.” In 2014, he received a lifetime achievement award from the Native American Music Awards.

He has been chairman of the Colville tribes since 2014. Boyd was a member of the Arrow Lakes Band, one of the 12 tribes that make up the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation

Last year Boyd traveled to Washington, D.C., to lobby for money to fight the wildfires that ravaged the Colville reservation, and to help families rebuild.

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Information from: The Spokesman-Review, http://www.spokesman.com