A group of tourists are caught up in the excitement of watching a Seminole Indian wrestle a 7-foot gator with his bare hands. It's a daring display of courage and skill mixed with a touch of showmanship that's much appreciated by the cheering crowd. That night, after all the tourists have left the village, four Seminole elders gather around a small campfire. Buck, leader of the tribe, used to be quite an alligator wrestler in his day. Micco, Jumper and Two Feathers, each ten years younger than Buck, also used to be good with gators. But now, like Buck, they're all past their prime and relegated to helping around the village while the younger men carry on the Seminole tradition of wrestling gators for the tourists. Buck invites James, a young lad of fifteen, to join the elders at the campfire. He tells the young man that he alone has been chosen from all the other boys in the village to carry on the time-honored Seminole tradition of wrestling alligators. Buck tells James that tomorrow they're going to take him back into the Big Cypress and teach him how to catch and wrestle the sacred alligator. James' mother is not happy that her son has been chosen for the honor. Ten years earlier his dad was killed trying to wrestle a huge gator on the other side of the swamp. She doesn't want the same thing to happen to her son. It turns out that Buck was with James' dad when he died. He told everyone that the reason James' dad got killed was because he was "showing off" for the tourists and got careless. That wasn't true. It was Buck who got careless and was directly responsible for the death of the boy's dad. Many Seminole's believe that if a gator kills a man it steals his soul and won't release the soul to the Great Spirit. The only way to get the man's soul back is for his son to catch and subdue the same gator. Buck has chosen James, it seems, to clear a very bad case of a guilty conscience. When the group arrives in the Big Cypress, Micco, Jumper and Two Feathers are shocked to find out the gator that killed James' dad is a 16-foot monster. They know there's no way the boy can catch and subdue the gator without help. So they agree to rally around the boy and together they help him subdue the incredibly large reptile. Buck tells James that he can kill or let the gator go. James doesn't want to kill such a magnificent creature and agrees to let the gator go with the admonition, "OK, Big Fella, you owe me one!" Twenty years later, James is now educated and the elected Sheriff of Hendry County, located on the edge of the Big Cypress Swamp. When big city cops in Miami have trouble with a gang running drugs through the swamp, then call on the Hendry Sheriff, now known throughout South Florida as the 'Seminole Man'. When James finds Santo, the head drug runner, driving his drug cargo in a large airboat through the swamp, James crashes his much smaller airboat into Santo's craft to stop him. When James is thrown into shallow water, Santo repeatedly tries to run over the defenseless Sheriff with his airboat. As darkness approaches, James lures Santo towards a spit of sand and his heavy craft becomes stuck. James and Santo engage in a no-holds-barred fight for survival in the dark stained waters, with neither man able to gain the upper hand. When James stumbles, Santo sees his chance and starts to stab a knife into James' chest, but the monster gator appears from out of nowhere, grabs Santo by the arm and drags him to his death. James and "Big Fella" are now even! Fast life and fast girls contrast with the simple life of the Seminole, who's morality is dictated not so much by power and might, but by nature and the Great Spirit. James uses modern police techniques to catch criminals, but he also uses the ways of his Indian heritage. The result is a mixture of blending old ways with the new in a never ending battle for survival...an