OREGON
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2021
THE OBSERVER — A9
First Native American parks director faces a ‘huge task’
that trust and morale within
the agency is going to be a
really top priority,” Lam-
from said.
The morale concerns and
other staffi ng issues come
amid surging popularity for
the park service, with many
national parks — such as
Zion and Glacier national
parks — having experi-
enced record attendance
numbers in recent years.
“There’s a lot of other
issues that he’s gonna have
to deal with, like the fact is
By CHRIS AADLAND
Underscore.news
and Indian Country Today
WASHINGTON —
Record annual attendance
numbers. Low morale
among employees. Billions
of dollars in maintenance
needs.
Those are just some
of the challenges Chuck
Sams will have to tackle
as director of the National
Park Service after offi -
cially taking leadership in
a swearing-in ceremony
Thursday, Dec. 16.
Sams becomes the fi rst
Native American to hold
the position and the most
recent Indigenous person to
hold a high-ranking posi-
tion in the federal gov-
ernment since Joe Biden
became president. His
boss will be Deb Haaland,
Laguna Pueblo, the Interior
secretary and fi rst Indige-
nous person to hold a cabi-
net-level position.
Sams’ background and
citizenship with the Con-
federated Tribes of the
Umatilla Indian Reserva-
tion also means some are
optimistic he’ll work to
improve how the agency
and its hundreds of national
parks, historic sites, monu-
ments and recreation areas
work with tribal nations and
incorporate their history
and culture.
“Everyone should have
access to the outdoors no
matter where they live, how
much money they have,
or what their background
is,” Haaland said in a press
release announcing the
swearing in. “Chuck Sams
understands the impor-
tance of connecting people
to nature, and I am thrilled
to work with him as the
Interior Department works
to make our national park
system accessible to all
Americans.”
Kat Brigham, chair
of the CTUIR Board of
Trustees, said Sams has a
big challenge tackling the
that during the pandemic,
America fell in love all over
again with our national
parks,” Lamfrom said.
In addition to ensuring
people can access the parks
while making sure they’re
adequately protected in the
face of heavy attendance,
he said he’d like to see the
agency engage with groups
who aren’t fl ocking to park
service units and make
them more welcoming for
all.
“The demographics tell
us that that fl ocking is not
consistent across all com-
munities,” Lamfrom added.
“So there’s attention and
care that needs to be put
into ensuring that commu-
nities who have felt disen-
gaged from the parks, or
have never felt engaged with
the parks, can connect and
feel welcome.”
Regardless, he said,
Sams is “absolutely up for
this” and is taking over at
an important and potentially
“transformational” moment.
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National Park Service/Contributed Photo
Chuck Sams, the new director of the National Park Service and an
enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian
Reservation, shakes hands in this undated photo with U.S. Secretary
of the Interior Deb Haaland. Sams is the service’s fi rst permanent di-
rector in fi ve years.
needs of the park service
but she is hopeful he also
will prioritize improving
the agency’s work and coor-
dination with tribal nations
and Indigenous people.
“He’s got a huge task,”
she said. “But I hope, even-
tually, that he’ll be able to
help us tell our story about
our traditions and our cul-
ture within the national
parks area.”
Sams has a 25-year back-
ground in tribal administra-
tion and nonprofi t natural
resource and conservation
management. That work has
included facilitating land
transfers and donations to
the park service, in addi-
tion to working on park
system lands with volun-
teers on conservation and
invasive species manage-
ment, among other related
roles in public lands and
conservation.
Sams will take over a
park service that hasn’t had
a permanent director since
2017.
Before he was confi rmed
in late November, a Senate
committee tasked with vet-
ting Sams questioned him
about his priorities and how
he would address some of
the more pressing needs
of the agency and the 85
million acres it manages.
Those priorities, he said,
include tackling the agen-
cy’s $12 billion mainte-
nance backlog. In 2020,
Congress passed a $6.5
billion bill that aimed to
address that backlog after
years of underinvestment.
But for David Lamfrom,
one of the most immediate
issues is the mood among
park service employees.
Lamfrom is the vice pres-
ident of Regional Pro-
grams for the National Park
Conservation Association
and works on communi-
ty-building and reaching
more diverse constituents.
He’d like to see a more
diverse park service work-
force. But fi rst, he said, the
workplace culture and con-
cerns about harassment
and gender discrimination
have to be addressed, which
Sams has recognized as a
priority.
“I think building back
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