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Please join us at the Martha Wren Briggs Amphitheatre at Lake Matoaka, for an evening conversation with the 19th National Park Service Director, Charles F. "Chuck" Sams III.

Thursday, April 28, 6:15-8 pm ET (Gates open 6:00 pm)

This event will be simultaneously live streamed.

An IIC Conservation Speaker Series, Indigenous Voices in Conservation event

Sams is Cayuse and Walla Walla and is an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Northeast Oregon, where he grew up. He also has blood ties to the Cocopah Tribe and Yankton Sioux of Fort Peck.

Sams most recently served as Oregon Governor Kate Brown's appointee to the Pacific Northwest Power and Conservation Council (NW Council) where he held a position as a council member from March to December of 2021. Prior to joining the NW Council, he served as executive director for the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.

For more than 25 years, Sams has worked in tribal and state government, and in the non-profit natural resource and conservation management field, with an emphasis on the responsibility of strong stewardship for land preservation for this and future generations.

Sams is a veteran of the U.S. Navy where he served as an intelligence specialist. He 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. He lives with his wife, Lori Lynn (Reinecke) Sams and their youngest daughter in Alexandria, VA.

Moderated by Robert Rose, with interviewers Andrew Fisher and Nikki Bass

Nikki Bass is a Nansemond Indian scientist focused on cultural revitalization through environmental stewardship. She was born and raised on the Chesapeake Bay and has 15 years of experience in environmental protection and public health. Nikki weaves traditional and modern indigenous perspectives into interdisciplinary projects that immerse communities in living tribal landscapes and waterways. Over the past decade, she has dedicated her efforts to the Great Dismal Swamp as a site of intertribal significance and the Nansemond River as the original lifeforce of the Nansemond people. She currently works to empower her tribe through data collection, storytelling with geographic information systems, and capacity building through conservation partnerships.

Andrew Fisher is an Associate Professor of History at William & Mary and currently directs the Environment & Sustainability Program (ENSP). His research and teaching interests focus on modern Native American history, environmental history, and the American West. 

Robert Rose is the Executive Director for the Institute for Integrative Conservation (IIC) at William & Mary and is the former Director for the Center for Geospatial Analysis (CGA). Prior to William & Mary he spent seven years at the Wildlife Conservation Society as the Assistant Director of Conservation Support. 

This event is brought to you by the Institute for Integrative Conservation and the National Park Service, with support for this series from the W&M Center for Racial and Social Justice, American Indian Resource Center, American Indian Students Association, Native Studies Minor, the Environment and Sustainability Program, and Departments of History and Anthropology.

Contact

https://www.wm.edu/offices/iic/

This Event Appears On

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