Sam Pambrun is a local historian, retired school administrator, and former president of the Umatilla Historical Society. The Pambrun family has lived in the Walla Walla area since the early 19th century when Pierre Chrysologue Pambrun, a French-Canadian, was stationed as the administrator for the Hudson’s Bay Company at Fort Nez Perce. Pierre’s wife, Catherine “Kitty” Umfreville Pambrun, helped to lead Fort Nez Perce, while raising their six children.

Sam Pambrun is the great-grandson of Andrew Pambrun, who also worked for the Hudson’s Bay Company and served as an aide to Washington Territorial Governor Isaac Stevens from 1855 to 1858. He served as a translator for the Cayuse Tribe during treaty negotiations in Walla Walla in 1855. He married Mary Cook, a woman of Cree-English descent, with whom he had twelve children.

Sam has conducted extensive interviews, collected stories, and given presentations to help document his family’s long history in the Walla Walla Valley.