Charles “Chuck” F. Sams III grew up on the Umatilla Indian Reservation where he is enrolled as Walla Walla and Cayuse with the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR). Most recently he served as the 19th director of the United States National Park Service. Sams currently serves as one of Oregon’s council members on the Northwest Power and Conservation Council. Over his 35-year career, he has served as executive director and deputy executive director for the CTUIR, in addition to communications director, environmental health and safety officer and planner, and special sciences analyst with the Tribes. He received a Master of Legal Studies in Indigenous Peoples Law from the University of Oklahoma School of Law. Sams is a graduate of the U.S. Navy / Marine Corps Intelligence Training Center 'A' School and served as an intelligence specialist with an Attack Squadron, the Joint Intelligence Center Pacific Command, and the Defense Intelligence Agency Headquarters.