Sherman Timothy Wapato was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1935. He was an enrolled member of the Colville Confederated Tribes. His father was an Evangelist minister and the family moved often, eventually settling in the Methow Valley, Washington. In 1953, he earned a bachelor’s degree from Washington State University in Pullman. He served in the U.S. Army from 1955 to 1957. In 1958, he joined the Los Angeles Police Department and served as officer-in-charge of the detective special investigative teams. During his time at LAPD, he also helped the Colville Confederated Tribes design a tribal police department and court. After retiring from the police force in 1979, he served on the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, and was executive director of the commission from 1980 to 1989. In the later 1980s and early 1990s, he served as a commissioner on the U.S. Pacific Salmon Commission, and for the Administration for Native Americans. In 1993, he established the Washington, D.C., office of the National Indian Gaming Association. He later served as executive director of the Inter-Tribal Bison Cooperative in Rapid City, South Dakota, and formed the consulting firm Kingman/Wapato and Associates. He died in 2009.

The Northwest Power Planning Council is a four-state regional planning body formed by Congress through the Northwest Power Act of 1980 to develop and maintain regional conservation and electric power plans and a fish and wildlife program. The council is composed of two representatives from each member state: Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana. The mission of the council is "to preserve the benefits of the Columbia River for future generations." The body was originally known as the Pacific Northwest Electric Power and Conservation Planning Council; the name was shortened to Northwest Power Planning Council in October 1981, and in 2003, the name was changed to the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.