"The park service has long tried to present a wide range of perspectives on historical events. The Trump administration could reverse that."
"National Park Service leaders and rangers over the past several decades have strived to expand the agency’s role as the nation’s chief storyteller.
For much of its history, NPS depicted a burnished version of the U.S., touting the country’s founding values and military prowess, as well as the nation’s stunning natural beauty. But more recently, the service gradually shifted its tone. In tours led by park rangers, on wayside panels along highways, at visitor centers and museums, the park service began to include accounts of this country’s story that were previously ignored. This has meant exploring the abuses and indignities of slavery and violence against Native Americans. It also elevated the struggle and heroism of minority communities and women who fought for civil rights.
Now the Trump administration has taken aim at aspects of this more expansive approach.
President Donald Trump earlier this year ordered that museums and national parks should search out and eliminate depictions of U.S. history that emphasize too much the sins of the past. It’s sparked a fresh debate about what kind of narratives about the United States should be told by the agency that tends the most treasured landscapes in the country. And it raised the possibility that once again much of U.S. history will not be found at national parks.
“I think we’re losing a lot,” said Alan Spears, the senior director of cultural resources for the National Parks Conservation Association. “The Park Service has not done a complete job, not a perfect job, but they have put in some serious work … to make the stories that they’re telling more accurate, more inclusive. And we’re seeing that threatened, if not erased at this point.”"
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