National Park Service Director Chuck Sams addresses guests and participants Dec. 24, 2021, at the Annual Christmas Celebration Pow Wow at the longhouse in Mission. Sams is returning to Pendleton. Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek nominated on Jan. 14, 2025, nominated Sams to serve on the Pacific Northwest Electric Power and Conservation Planning Council.

MISSION — Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation member Charles “Chuck” Sams’ time as director of the National Park Service has come to an end. But he could land on the Pacific Northwest Electric Power and Conservation Planning Council.

Sams (Cayuse/Walla Walla) has spent the past three years in Washington, D.C., serving as the 19th NPS director. With the election of Donald Trump as president, Sams was expected to be replaced. He was one of many people Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek nominated Jan. 14 to serve on state boards and commissions. The Oregon Senate Committee on Rules considers the nominations in February.

“We will move back to Pendleton at the end of the month,” Sams wrote, according to a statement from the CTUIR. “I will join the governor’s staff and await confirmation by the Senate.”

Prior to the Parks Service, he served as former Oregon Gov. Kate Brown’s appointee to the Pacific Northwest Power and Conservation Council from March to December 2021. Before joining it, he served as CTUIR executive director.

He has more than three decades of experience in tribal, state and federal government, and in the nonprofit natural resource and conservation management field, with an emphasis on the responsibility of strong stewardship for land preservation.

Sams is a U.S. Navy veteran, serving as an intelligence specialist. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Concordia University and a master’s degree in Indigenous peoples law from the University of Oklahoma School of Law.

He lives with his wife, Lori Lynn Sams and their youngest daughter in Alexandria, Virginia, but grew up on the Umatilla Indian Reservation. He also has blood ties to the Cocopah Tribe and Yankton Sioux of Fort Peck.

The Pacific Northwest Electric Power and Conservation Planning Council has the responsibility to develop a regional power plan and fish and wildlife program to balance the environmental and energy needs of the Northwest. Its mission is to ensure, with public participation, an affordable and reliable energy system while enhancing fish and wildlife in the Columbia River Basin.