National parks and historic sites, including two prominent Colorado sites whose stories involve darker chapters in American history, have been directed by the Trump administration to post signs asking visitors to report historical information “negative about either past or living Americans,” triggering concerns that difficult narratives could be sanitized.
The signs went up on Friday at both the Amache site near the southeastern town of Granada that incarcerated Japanese Americans during World War II and the Sand Creek Massacre site where U.S. troops killed hundreds of peaceful Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho in 1864 at their encampment near present-day Eads.
Park advocates and descendants of those who suffered in both of those historic moments have for months been wary that the current administration might try to reshape stories it deemed unflattering. President Donald Trump issued an executive order in late March outlining a raft of measures designed to reverse what it contends has been a “revisionist movement” to cast portions of American history in a negative light.
A follow-up May 20 order from Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum directed land management bureaus, such as the National Park Service, to review properties for “inappropriate content” that disparages Americans and remove it within 120 days and replace it with “content that focuses on the greatness of the achievements and progress of the American people.”
The new signage, which includes a QR code to collect visitor comments, strikes some park advocates as yet another step toward recasting tragic accounts – and on another level, perhaps prelude to a broader move toward eliminating smaller historic sites from federal oversight altogether.
But the immediate concern centered on the administration’s efforts to create a relentlessly positive version of history, and to deputize visitors as watchdogs of the narrative.
“I interpret it as a direct threat to why we have national parks,” said Tracy Coppola, Colorado senior program manager for the southwest regional office of the nonprofit National Parks Conservation Association, which advocates for parks’ preservation and improvement. “Definitely a chilling effect on our park rangers, whose job is to tell the story of these places. The Park Service is not partisan, and they represent all of us.”
Asked about the signs, Eric Leonard, superintendent of the High Plains Group that includes both Amache and Sand Creek sites as well as Bent’s Old Fort, responded in an email that the postings align with the orders, both titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” The signs also solicit feedback on park facilities and services that need repair or improvement.
Leonard said in subsequent emails that “park management will review and consider all comments.” He added: “The order welcomes viewpoints from the American people by encouraging public feedback. In line with the Executive and Secretary’s orders, we will continue to preserve park resources and help audiences discover the meanings and significance associated with those resources.”
What may at first seem like an inclusive approach – almost a crowdsourcing model – could actually undermine years of collaboration among groups tied to a region’s history that led to current interpretations, said Dawn DiPrince, president and CEO of History Colorado and also state historic preservation officer.
For instance, tribal input stands as a critical tool for interpretation of the Sand Creek Massacre Historic Site, as well as the exhibit on display at History Colorado’s downtown Denver museum. But it took years of negotiation and discussion to frame the story as it exists today.
“We should center truth when we are doing history, that should be our North Star,” DiPrince said. “I heard somebody say we can’t inherit the victories without the heartache. A dishonest relationship with history doesn’t get us very far.”
The president’s executive order criticizes what it terms “corrosive ideology” advanced by the prior administration. It calls for the Department of the Interior to determine whether public monuments, memorials, statues, markers, or similar properties have been altered or removed since Jan. 1, 2020, to create a “false reconstruction” of American history and take action to remedy those changes.
“It is the policy of my Administration to restore Federal sites dedicated to history, including parks and museums, to solemn and uplifting public monuments that remind Americans of our extraordinary heritage, consistent progress toward becoming a more perfect Union, and unmatched record of advancing liberty, prosperity, and human flourishing,” the order reads in part.
Coppola noted that if the administration is looking only for “a happy story about America,” that would discount stories at virtually every national park – and the entire missions of some.
“It’s really another massive way that the administration is trying to rewrite history to fit its agenda,” she said. “They’re trying to politicize a system that was never political. Parks are not partisan. They have been created by folks across the aisle throughout their history. The beauty of it is that it’s for everybody, and it’s not political.”
For instance, the bill that finally designated Amache as a National Historic Site was championed in the House by Rep. Ken Buck, a Republican, and moved through the Senate by Democratic Sens. John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet.
It was another executive order, in 1942, that created the incarceration camps like the Granada War Relocation Center, which became known as Camp Amache. The facility held as many as 7,300 people, mostly American citizens moved inland from the West Coast after the bombing of Pearl Harbor due to concern they could be a security threat. Nearly 1,000 men and women from Amache ultimately served in the U.S. armed forces during the war – the highest rate among any of the 10 primary incarceration camps throughout the country.
Mitch Homma, president of the Amache Alliance, the California-based nonprofit that works to preserve the story of the forced relocation, said there will always be “people that think our families deserved it, and you’re not going to change the minds of those people.” But he has heard from staff at Amache that so far, nearly all the visitor feedback through the QR code has been positive.
Still, he said, misrepresentation of the story is always a concern.
“Our board’s position in doing interpretation is sticking to the facts,” Homma said, “sticking to the facts and presenting history the way it was. And there are positive stories about Amache. I mean, I’m never gonna deny that it was unconstitutional, and what happened to our families should never happen again. But they found a way to build a community behind barbed wire. They planted gardens, they had sporting events, they developed a relationship with the town of Granada.”
John Hopper, teacher and administrator with the Granada School District, founded the Amache Preservation Society more than 30 years ago. In collaboration with the Amache Alliance and other organizations of survivors and descendants, it has enlisted students to perform upkeep at the site and give presentations on the facility’s history throughout the region.
And while Hopper had high hopes when bipartisan efforts finally succeeded in putting the Amache site under the direction of the National Park Service in February of 2024, this latest development about messaging at historic sites proved discouraging.
“It’s simple,” he said. “You can’t sugarcoat history. You have to learn from it, right? It seems like we’re regressing.”
Hopper, who recently announced his retirement, has seen early local conflict over the historic site diminish over the years, to the point he feels Granada fully supports its preservation, as well as an Amache museum in town that contains hundreds of artifacts and remains under the control of the student-led APS.
“There’ll never be signs like that at the museum,” Hopper said of the new postings on the camp’s former grounds. “It’s a darn good thing that I didn’t give that over to the National Park.”
David Inoue, executive director of the Japanese American Citizens League, had expressed concern months ago that the administration’s targeting of diversity, equity and inclusion could mean that sites like Amache, focused on a racial minority, would be targeted. Now the threat seems even closer.
“My greatest fear is that – and I hate to say it out loud because I’m worried this is where they’re going – is that they essentially remove a lot of these sites from the NPS, whether they return them to the states or whatever,” he said. “It’s not a matter of whether these are portraying our country in a positive or negative light. It is simply a part of our history and who we are.”
DiPrince of History Colorado echoes the concern that shifting the stories behind historic sites could just be a harbinger of hard economic policy aimed at focusing the National Park Service on more traditional landscapes – think tracts like Rocky Mountain National Park or Great Sand Dunes. When she looks at the proposed budget for FY26, what jumps out at her is a suggested slash of $900 million from National Park System operations.
The text accompanying the budget item suggests that smaller sites, based on visitor numbers, would be better managed as state-level parks.
“If you are looking at the three national park historic sites in southeastern Colorado, those really could be seen as the kinds of sites that could be closed,” said DiPrince, who grew up in nearby La Junta. “I am very concerned about the closure of those sites, and I think they tell really important histories. Although those visitor numbers are important to the economy of southeastern Colorado, the sites are important because of the history they tell.”
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