Chuck Sams To Speak on Rights of Nature
LandWatch’s 2025 Livable Future Forum opens with former National Park Service director
Central Oregon LandWatch is honored to be hosting Chuck Sams — a national thought leader in environmental stewardship, tribal sovereignty, and public service — as the first speaker in our 2025 Livable Future Forum.
Sams currently serves in an impressive trio of roles:
Oregon’s Council Member to the Northwest Power and Conservation Council,
Director of Indigenous Programs at Yale’s Center for Environmental Justice, and
Oregon Tribes Scholar in Residence and Senior Fellow for the Native Environmental Sovereignty Project at the University of Oregon.
These roles follow after his historic appointment as the First Native American to serve as Director of the National Park Service. As Director, he championed initiatives to expand and deepen tribal co-management, bolster climate resilience across the country, and promote equitable access to public lands.
Rights of Nature:
A Conversation with Chuck Sams
OCT 30, 7 PM | OSU-CASCADES, BEND, OR
The first Indigenous National Park Service Director Chuck Sams will join LandWatch Executive Director Ben Gordon for a discussion on the Rights of Nature—a movement that redefines how we relate to land, water, and wildlife. Sams will share perspectives shaped by Indigenous law and conservation leadership, inviting us to recognize nature not as property, but as a relative.
Tickets: $25 general; $10 student
Prior to that he had served as Executive Director and Deputy Executive Director for the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR), and held leadership roles with a broad range of organizations, including the City Volunteer Corps of New York, Earth Conservation Corps, the Columbia Slough Watershed Council, the Trust for Public Land, the Umatilla Tribal Community Foundation, and the Indian Country Conservancy Education.
Sams served in the U.S. Navy as an Intelligence Specialist with an Attack Squadron, at the Joint Intelligence Center Pacific Command, and with the Defense Intelligence Agency Headquarters. His expertise was in Soviet/Russian Affairs, Middle Eastern Affairs, China Affairs and AntiTerrorism.
Sams holds a Master of Legal Studies in Indigenous Peoples Law from the University of Oklahoma School of Law. He also earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, Management, Communications, and Leadership from Concordia University.
An enrolled tribal member of the Cayuse and Walla Walla tribes with the CTUIR, Sams resides in Pendleton, Oregon, where he and his family love to camp, hike, bike, hunt, and fish.
LandWatch is excited to hear his insights and learn from his vast experiences. Help us shape our Q&A with Sams by sharing your questions with us.
ENTER TO WIN
Central Oregon LandWatch's Livable Future Forum features passionate environmental advocates giving talks that will inspire the mindset shifts and solutions needed to create a thriving world in our region and beyond.
Enter by October 15 to win two free tickets to "Rights of Nature: A Conversation with Chuck Sams."
