Chuck Sams

Charles F. Sams III is a conservationist, tribal sovereignty advocate, and public servant whose career spans more than three decades of leadership across tribal, state, and federal government. Sams is Cayuse and Walla Walla and is an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Northeast Oregon. He also has blood ties to the Cocopah Tribe and Yankton Sioux of Fort Peck. In addition to serving in the Gulf War as a Navy intelligence officer, Sams has worked extensively in tribal, state, and federal government, as well as in nonprofit natural resource and conservation management, with an emphasis on stewardship and land preservation.

Sams became the first Native person to serve as director of the National Park Service following unanimous Senate confirmation. He was ceremonially sworn in as the 19th director of the National Park Service by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland. During his confirmation hearings, Sams emphasized that Indigenous and tribal consultation would be a major focus in his role. During his tenure, the number of land units co-stewarded by tribal communities increased significantly, promoting the use of Indigenous knowledge to enhance understanding of the natural world. In his capacity overseeing the National Park Service, Sams helped implement the Great American Outdoors Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

Before his appointment to the National Park Service, Sams held executive leadership roles in several conservation organizations. He served in various positions with the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, most recently as executive director, and also held roles as president and CEO of the Indian Country Conservancy, national director of the Tribal & Native Lands Program for the Trust for Public Land, executive director for the Columbia Slough Watershed Council, and president and CEO for the Earth Conservation Corps. Sams is recognized for building trust and collaboration between tribal nations and the federal government.

Sams holds several personal and professional honors, including the U.S. President's Service Medal for work in the environmental field from the Points of Light Foundation, the Walter T. Cox Award from Clemson University's Institute for Parks, and honorary doctorates in humane letters from Portland State University and Whitman College. His honors also include the U.S. Navy Memorial's Lone Sailor Award. Sams holds a Bachelor of Science in business administration from Concordia University and a Master of Legal Studies in Indigenous Peoples Law from the University of Oklahoma School of Law.

Following his tenure at the National Park Service, Sams has taken on roles advancing Indigenous environmental justice. He serves as Oregon's council member to the Northwest Power and Conservation Council, director of Indigenous programs at Yale Center for Environmental Justice, and Oregon Tribes scholar in residence and senior fellow for the Native Environmental Sovereignty Project at the University of Oregon. In this capacity, he released a report on tribal co-management of federal lands, "Tribal Co-Management of Federal Lands: Opportunities and Challenges," which calls for reforms to federal land management practices and outlines pathways for stronger tribal participation in the stewardship of public lands. Sams argues that Indigenous knowledge could be a key solution for climate resilience.