Sammy Matsaw Jr.
Council Member: Sammy Matsaw Jr. - Sammy is serving his first term on the Fort Hall Business Council. After graduating from Shoshone-Bannock Jr/Sr High School he worked at JR Simplot in Research and Development for 2 years. He decided to join the military enlisting in the US Army to be stationed in Germany where he was sent to Kosovo in 1999. Later returning home to re-enlist on his way to becoming an officer attending Idaho State University he was deployed to Iraq 2004-05 as an Infantry team leader and left the Army in 2007 as a sergeant. Matsaw brings ten years of military experience and leadership as a combat veteran with a list of awards highlighting a few: Commendation medal, several Achievement and Good Conduct medals, Airborne jump wings, German Armed forces proficiency badge, and more.
After leaving the military he completed both a Master's of Science in Conservation Genetics and Bachelor of Science in Ecology from Idaho State University. During his Master's he worked at Fish and Wildlife for five years to later resign his job as a Program Manager to start a PhD program at the University of Idaho, in Moscow. Along with his wife Jessica and their four children, they packed up where she completed her Bachelor's degree and then her Master's, and Sammy his Ph.D. in Water Resource Science & Management. All the while leading mentoring projects with tribal students, and teaching courses highlighting FOR310/502 Indigenous Culture and Ecology which he fully designed and developed as a doctoral student at Ul.
Before serving on council, he was a Research Scientist for the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes' Fish & Wildlife Department with the Anadromous Fish Program where he spent additional years protecting the sovereignty and treaties of the Tribes through science and management efforts. During those years at school and working for the Tribes, Sammy has been able to secure a number of grants, and funding awards, and more recently as a Principal Investigator leading research.
Sammy is a father, husband and grandfather. He is a pipe-carrier and Sun Dancer with both his mother and father's tribes. He enjoys spending time in the outdoors with his family practicing the traditional ways of our people.
Our Location
We are located just off Interstate 15, Exit 80 and down Agency Road in the Tribal Business Center
