Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 39, Number 1, 1 January 2022 — America's First Indigenous National Park Service Director [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

America's First Indigenous National Park Service Director

The Biden Administration eontinues to intentionally appoint Indigenous people into senior leadership positions within the federal government, including the recent appointments of Native Hawaiians Krystal Ka'ai, Keone Nakoa and Summer Sylva. The most recent such appointment is not a Native Hawaiian but a Native American. Charles Sams, III, has been named the new director of the National Park Service (NPS). As such, he will have oversight of Hawai'i's five national parks, two national historic sites, one national historic trail and one national memorial - so his appointment is significant to Native Hawaiians. Sams is an enrolled member, Cayuse and Walla Walla, of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. He has more than two decades of exeperience as an executive leader in both tribal and conservation organizations, and is the first Indigenous person ever to lead the NPS. Hawai'i's national parks include countless wahi pana and cultural/historical sites and more than 380,000 acres of land, primarily on Moku o Keawe, whieh includes Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park. The NPS's inventory of Hawaiian land also includes Haleakalā on Maui, Kalaupapa on Moloka'i, and the Pearl Harbor National Memorial on O'ahu. ■

Charles Sams III