Do not ask the question if you do not want to hear the answer. The US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum learned that lesson publicly last month, after his effort to solicit feedback from National Parks visitors backfired. In June, posters began appearing at National Parks around the country asking visitors to report “any signs or other information that are negative about either past or living Americans or that fail to emphasise the beauty, grandeur and abundance of landscapes and other natural features”, with a QR code linking to a submission form. Instead, most visitors took the opportunity to speak out against the current government’s attempts to rewrite history.
“History is supposed to be uncomfortable. It is supposed to be difficult and raise conflicting feelings,” one visitor wrote, according to a 65-page document leaked to land conservation groups and viewed by The Art Newspaper. “The mere fact that the Secretary of the Interior would seek to erase history because it doesn’t conform to his and the current administration’s desires is disgusting and reprehensible. Everyone involved in the enactment of this executive order should be ashamed and disgusted in themselves.” Burgum’s actions followed an executive order issued by President Donald Trump in March, seeking to present only positive depictions of America.
The National Park Service (NPS) oversees hundreds of historic sites and monuments around the country, including those related to some of the grimmest chapters of US history, such as the legacy of slavery, the internment of American citizens and immigrants of Japanese descent during the Second World War and the mass murder and forced relocation of Native American tribes. When signs started appearing at some of the sites, including Manzanar, a former Japanese internment camp in California, groups like the Resistance Rangers, made up of current and former NPS employees, quickly mobilised.
“It’s a park ranger’s job to interpret history in a factual and historically accurate way. Censoring our interactions with visitors to align with administrative priorities is a disservice to the public,” the group says on its website, urging supporters to speak out against the “snitch signs”.
“The Trump administration is trying to erase and rewrite history. But that’s not what the American people want,” says Theresa Pierno, the president and chief executive for the National Parks Conservation Association, in an emailed statement. “Park visitors are asking for more inclusive storytelling, especially signage that honours Tribal histories and voices. And we couldn’t agree more.”
One visitor left the same message at multiple National Park sites, writing: “This felonious Administration is the very definition of un-American. The parks belong to us, the people. We say •••• NO to the selling off of public lands.”
US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference earlier this year Photo by Gage Skidmore, via Flickr
A visitor to Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, a focus of President Trump’s planned 250th anniversary celebrations of US independence next year—which includes a museum about the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the country’s early founders—wrote: “What upset me the most about the museum—more than anything in the actual exhibits—were the signs telling people to report anything they thought was negative about Americans. That isn’t just frustrating, it’s outrageous. It felt like an open invitation to police and attack historians for simply doing their jobs: telling the truth. Asking visitors to turn in the people who spent years researching and presenting history is not only disrespectful, it’s dangerous.”
“Transgender people are an integral part of the history of Stonewall and make up part of the federal workforce AND world population whether anyone likes it or not. History is history and trans folks will continue to exist regardless,” another visitor wrote. “Removal of every mention of every trans person associated with Stonewall invalidates their work and their existence. Put them back. Honour them. There would be no Stonewall without trans people.”
“The vast majority of public comments show what we’ve always known: people love their national parks and deeply value the dedicated staff who protect them every day,” Pierno says. “It’s clear this administration is completely out of step with the American people when it comes to safeguarding these treasured places and the stories they tell.”
That may become even clearer in the coming months, as Burgum’s memo to staff to install the signs included a section calling for the removal of any content inconsistent with Trump’s executive order by September. The memo states: “The relevant land management Bureau shall then take action to replace the removed content with content that focuses on the greatness of the achievements and progress of the American people or, with respect to natural features, the beauty, abundance and grandeur of the American landscape.”
