Amid an onslaught of distressing news, a recent unanimous move by the U.S. Senate has given us all something to celebrate. On Thursday night, the Senate confirmed Chuck F. Sams III as the first Native American to head the National Parks Service (NPS), as reported by Oregon Public Broadcasting. Sams was confirmed by a voice vote, which is pretty cool in that it shows how uniform the decision was. Mind you, it’s fundamentally shameful that a Native American person hasn’t served as director of the NPS in its 100-plus-year history, but given the way our nation continues to uphold structural racism, it’s not terribly surprising.Sams is an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. He recently worked on the Northwest Power and Conservation Council (a position to which, notably, he was nominated by Oregon Gov. Kate Brown) and has ample experience in land management. This is obviously a good thing, given that the Director of NPS role involves managing the national parks system (which includes hundreds of areas in every state, plus U.S. territories), battlefields, monuments, and historical sites. Read more