Erasing History, Silencing Science

As mandated by law, national parks tell the full story of America — from our darkest chapters to our greatest triumphs — and protect landscapes unimpaired for future generations.

More actions by the Trump administration in September as part of its executive order to “restore truth and sanity” undermine that mandate. These latest efforts follow steps this spring to sanitize history when the National Park Service was told to remove references to slavery and LGBTQ+ history from its webpages.

News media outlets recently brought attention to removed Park Service signage, missing educational materials and websites scrubbed of undeniable truths — from slavery to transgender activism — and unimpeachable scientific research on our changing climate.

“Pretending that the bad stuff never happened is not going to make it go away,” NPCA’s Director of Cultural Resources Alan Spears said in an interview with The Associated Press. “We need to be able to talk about these things if we’re going to have any hope of bringing people together.”

In keeping with Trump’s executive order and a related directive by Department of Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Park Service staff were forced this summer to inventory signage, interpretation and books in gift shops, as well as put up signs at all parks asking visitors to report via a QR code any so-called negative information being shared about past or living Americans. Park staff then had to submit content for review in mid-July.

The administration reviewed the information and began sending out letters indicating items that were non-compliant and instructing parks to remove, cover up or replace certain content.

Here are September’s actions that NPCA finds most troubling:

Order to remove ‘Scourged Back’ photo

The Department of Interior had ordered a famous Civil War-era photograph, titled “Scourged Back,” to be removed from at least one national park site, according to The Washington Post. The 1863 photograph depicts an enslaved man named Peter with prominent whip scars he suffered before escaping. At the time it was circulated, the image shocked the nation and the world with its honest depiction of the nature of U.S. slavery.

“Expert historians at the National Park Service spend a great deal of time determining what goes on display at national parks, and what the public can learn from it. This photo and other images and information have been painstakingly selected and contextualized to help park visitors understand the role slavery has played in our history. By contrast, the decision to remove them was rendered in a matter of weeks, with little regard for the complexity of American history or the importance of the Park Service’s hard work,” Spears said.

Potential efforts to alter The President’s House exhibit

Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia is where the founders of the U.S. signed the Declaration of Independence. The President’s House Site there is considered one of the country’s most prominent national park exhibits openly acknowledging the paradox between slavery and freedom in the founding of the nation. The outdoor exhibit incorporates the foundation of the home where George Washington kept slaves as part of the presidential household when Philadelphia served as the nation’s capital. It also includes a memorial wall with the names of the nine slaves who served Washington and his family, as well as interpretive panels and interactive displays educating visitors about slavery in America and what life was like for individuals enslaved by the country’s first president.

The New York Times reported in mid-September that the Trump administration specifically flagged the exhibit for review and was ordering the Park Service to “substantially alter” it and other exhibits because they advanced “corrosive ideology” that taught visitors that America is racist.

The exhibit opened in 2010 after collaborative efforts between a community coalition and the Park Service that began in 2002. Advocates have held rallies in recent weeks in support of keeping the exhibit as is.

Removal of signs about Tribes, Japanese American incarceration sites

The New York Times article, as well as a Washington Post story, cited orders by the Trump administration to remove signs stating national park land belonged to Native Tribes, who were forcibly removed from the American West. Yellowstone National Park, for example, was established on land from which the U.S. military forcibly removed Tribes.

Similar signage describing the National Park System at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in New York City was taken down for referring to historical events such as slavery, Japanese American incarceration sites and conflicts with Native Americans.

Removal of climate change information

The Park Service has been ordered to remove its general Climate Change webpage as well as park-specific webpages at Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park, Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve, Lake Mead National Recreation Area, and George Washington Memorial Parkway. The evidence-based webpages highlighted information on rising temperatures, damage to ecosystems, increased extreme weather and wildfire, shrinking glaciers, and the impacts of these changes to roads and urban areas.

Physical signs at two popular destinations at Acadia National Park — Cadillac Mountain and Great Meadow wetland — were also removed after being created to improve the visitor experience. They referred to the park’s changing climate, including more frequent storms, intense rain and hotter temperatures.

“We have decades of scientific research that demonstrate the impact of climate change on Maine and Acadia National Park — longer droughts, more intense precipitation events, more intense coastal storms, sea level rise. We have the science to back that up. It’s science, it’s not politics,” said Todd Martin, NPCA’s Northeast senior program manager. “The signs coming down at Acadia is just another example of erasure and censure that we’ve seen at our parks in recent weeks and months.”

What’s at stake

National parks staff have made tremendous strides in recent decades, sharing the facts about difficult topics like slavery, segregation and climate change. If these directives and policies aimed at censoring and sanitizing our history and science are allowed to stand, visitors may miss out on the full picture of history and nature that they deserve at our parks. From park sites as large as Yosemite to as small as the Frederick Douglass House, Americans count on the Park Service to tell truthful stories and accurate information — and NPCA believes the public can handle the truth.

Eliminating information “undermines park visitors at every turn,” said Kristen Brengel, NPCA’s senior vice president of government affairs. “Stripping this history and science away strips our national parks of their integrity. Knowing that even workbooks for junior ranger programs could be removed from parks is a stunning reversal of the education mission of our parks and disrupts the very foundation of the National Park System.”

NPCA is urging Congress to take a stand for our national parks: Reverse budget cuts, restore educational webpages so the public can access them, and let Park Service staff do their jobs.

It’s critical to let people learn about history and how it happened, not how a single administration wishes it happened. As Spears says, “Our national parks have the power to bring people together, to learn about our country’s trials and triumphs alike, and build a better world for future generations.”