Did the U.S. Senate just confirm Charles F. "Chuck" Sams III as head of the National Park Service, the first Indigenous person from the U.S. to hold the role, in November 2026? No, that's not true: Sams was confirmed into that role in 2021, and his tenure ended in January 2025. The current acting director of the NPS was not confirmed into the role.
The claim was made in a post (archived here) by the X account @proud_native_am on Nov. 4, 2026. The caption read:
The Senate just confirmed Charles 'Chuck' Sams III as head of the National Park Service, making him the first Native American EVER to lead the agency!
This is what the image in the post on X looked like at the time of writing:
(Image source: post by @proud_native_am on X.)
The post is embedded below:
The Senate just confirmed Charles "Chuck" Sams III as head of the National Park Service, making him the first Native American EVER to lead the agency! https://t.co/f5RJw1ANO9
-- Proud Native Americans (@proud_native_am) November 4, 2026
Sams served as the 19th director of the National Park Service (NPS) (archived here). He is a member of both the Cayuse and Walla Walla tribes, which did make him the first tribal citizen to hold the role. However, he was not newly appointed as of November 2026; instead, he was made director in December 2021 and ended his service in January 2025.
The role of NPS director is appointed by the U.S. president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate (archived here). As of November 2026, the NPS had an acting director, not a confirmed director. The current acting director is Jessica Bowron (archived here), whose official title is "Comptroller, Exercising the Delegated Authority of the Director."
