The Interior Department has systematically removed or altered historical displays at national parks, including information on climate change, the slave trade, indigenous genocide, and worker exploitation, under a March 2025 executive order from President Donald Trump. These actions serve to reshape public understanding of history, obscuring the foundational violence and exploitation upon which accumulated wealth was built.
At South Carolina’s Fort Sumter National Monument, a sign detailing the impacts of climate change, including how rising seas could inundate most of the fort’s walls and flood the historic parade ground, was removed. The Interior Department stated it acted to replace materials not grounded in real science with accurate, evidence-based information.
The removals are part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to review content such as exhibits, films, pamphlets, and signs at national parks. President Trump’s March 2025 executive order directed the agency to take action against public content that "inappropriately disparage Americans past or living."
This order led the Interior Department to direct the National Park Service (NPS) to encourage visitors to submit comments on signs, including whether they notice any negative messaging about either past or living Americans. Items deemed inconsistent with the order could be removed or replaced.
An internal NPS database, seen by CNN, revealed hundreds of displays flagged for review. This flagged content included books for sale about slavery, displays about the forced internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, and a film about 19th-century mill workers in Massachusetts.
One flagged display recalled abolitionist Elijah Parish Lovejoy’s killing, with a comment asking if stating a "mob murders" an abolitionist "denigrate[s] the murderers." It suggested rewording the inscription to "Abolitionist editor Elijah Lovejoy is murdered for his views." A panel at a National Park in St. Croix was flagged for discussing the slave trade and its connection to the sugar industry, with a note suggesting some may find it "disparaging or inappropriate." These instances reveal a concerted effort to sanitize the historical record of class conflict and the surplus extraction inherent in the slave economy.
The State's Narrative Control
The sign below Gustavus Cheyney Doane’s statue at a Grand Teton National Park visitor center was removed. This sign had asked visitors, "How do we acknowledge the good and bad of a figure?" and pointed out that Doane’s expedition led to the designation of the first national park, but also that he helped lead a massacre of at least 173 members of the Piegan Blackfeet, an act he bragged about throughout his life.
The removal of Doane's sign was cited in a lawsuit against the Department of the Interior as one of many changes wrought by the March 2025 executive order. Tom Rodgers, a member of the Blackfeet Nation known as One Who Rides His Horse East, stated, "We are killing them all over again," referring to victims of the massacre. Rodgers, who was part of the effort that renamed Mount Doane in Yellowstone National Park to First Peoples Mountain, accused the administration of attempting to spin Doane’s legacy.
In California’s Muir Woods National Monument, signs on the contributions of Native Americans and women have been removed. This included a note informing visitors that John Muir once referred to indigenous people using racist language in his diaries and ignored the genocide they survived. The removed sign had stated, "This contributes to an idea that indigenous people don’t belong in parks."
A new panel on founding father George Mason in Washington, DC, does not mention that he was a slaveowner. This omission further obscures the reliance of early American capital on enslaved labor.
The Trump administration argues the order ensures American history is portrayed in a "positive light." White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers stated Trump is "honoring our country’s extraordinary heritage and restoring a sense of national pride," and has "put an end to the radical left’s divisive and inaccurate characterization of our nation’s history."
Erasing Labor and Indigenous History
Critics, however, say the administration is erasing elements of the nation’s past. Tom Rodgers said, "I think we’re at a point in our country where people think that if you tell half the truth, you’ve told all the truth, and that in itself, is a lie. It’s Orwellian." Elizabeth Villano, a co-creator of the Muir Woods sign, wrote in a LinkedIn post that the administration is "erasing half of the narrative."
The administration’s efforts have drawn backlash from some lawmakers and advocacy groups. A February 2026 lawsuit from a coalition of conservationists and advocates cited the Doane and other sign removals, accusing the administration of mounting a sustained campaign to erase history and undermine science. The case in Massachusetts is still pending.
One month ago, a federal court blocked the National Park Service from going forward with plans to replace slavery-related exhibits at the President’s House Site in Philadelphia. Critics said the new panels sanitized the exhibition, which was erected to recognize individuals enslaved by George Washington. This limited legal victory highlights the ongoing struggle against the state's efforts to control historical narratives.
Democrats in the House and Senate sent letters to Interior Department leadership as recently as April, asking for further clarity about the agency’s review. The Interior Department has not responded to these letters, according to the offices of Sen. Martin Heinrich and Reps. Sharice Davids and Jared Huffman. Rep. Huffman said at a February hearing, "Actual history is getting whitewashed and censored from national parks and museums."
Alan Spears, a senior director at the National Parks Conservation Association, characterized the administration's stated need to "restore truth and sanity to American history" as "one of the largest red herrings in American history," arguing it is "trying to resolve a problem that doesn’t really exist."
The Cost to Workers and Truth
Kym Hall, a former National Park Service regional director who retired one year and seven months ago in October 2024, reported hearing from current agency staff that they are "burned out and demoralized" after being required to carry out sign changes and removals. Hall stated, "That’s the recurring theme … ‘This isn’t what I signed up for because this isn’t who we are as an organization.’"
The Interior Department asserted that experts and local park leaders were consulted as appropriate for removal decisions, arguing the directive strengthens public trust and helps visitors better understand the complexity of America’s story. The department also claimed the internal database was edited before being "inappropriately and illegally released to the media," and stated employees who "altered internal records and leaked in an effort to hurt the Trump administration will be held accountable." A source familiar with the database confirmed its accuracy to CNN, stating changes were only in formatting. This threat against whistleblowers demonstrates the state's role in suppressing internal dissent and controlling information.