The Department of the Interior will require the National Park Service (NPS) to post signs at all sites, encouraging visitors to provide feedback on historical content that they believe portrays American history or landscapes in a negative light. NPS tells Straight Arrow News the effort is intended to ensure public lands reflect “an accurate portrayal of American history and heritage.”
The policy follows a directive issued in May by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, titled the “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” order. The order calls for a review of historical monuments, markers and memorials that have been altered or removed since 2020, with the goal of restoring them where appropriate.
Public feedback initiative
According to the department, signs featuring QR codes will be placed around parks, linking visitors to a federal land management website where they can submit comments.
NPR reported that National Park Service Comptroller Jessica Bowron sent a memo to regional directors on June 9 requiring the signs to be posted by June 13. The memo also sets a mid-July deadline for parks to review all public-facing content, including images and descriptions, that may be considered disparaging.
“This order reaffirms the NPS mission by emphasizing the importance of accuracy in how we tell stories of American history,” Park Service spokesperson Rachel Pawlitz said in a statement to NPR. “Our visitors come to national parks to celebrate the beauty, abundance and grandeur of America’s landscapes and extraordinary multicultural heritage. This allows them to personally connect with these special places, free of any partisan ideology.”
Some conservation advocates disagree with the move.
“The signs are asking people to contradict crucial scientific and historical facts that have been vetted for accuracy by experts at the National Park Service,” said Theresa Pierno, CEO and president of the National Parks Conservation Association. “These signs are the latest in a long line of disturbing administration efforts to rewrite American history and undermine the Park Service.”
American history education
The initiative is part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to “restore truth and sanity to American history” at federal institutions. In March 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at revising the presentation of American history. Burgum’s order then followed a few months later.
One day before the 2020 election, Trump created the 1776 Commission to “promote patriotic education.”
Although the commission was shelved during President Joe Biden’s administration, Trump reestablished its influence upon returning to office in January 2025.
A subsequent order aimed at “ending radical indoctrination in K-12 schooling” granted the president authority to appoint 20 members to the commission.
Monument removals since 2020
Over the past five years, more than 200 public Confederate symbols have been removed, relocated or renamed, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. Those include statues of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in Virginia and a monument to Confederate soldiers in Alabama.
While the First Amendment protects the display of Confederate symbols, the Pentagon banned the Confederate flag from military installations in 2020.
