U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich, Ranking Member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, condemned the Trump administration's actions regarding historical content in America's national parks during remarks delivered on the Senate floor on March 11.
Heinrich said these actions threaten to erase important aspects of American history from public lands. He was joined by Senators Jeff Merkley, Angus King, and Mazie Hirono in addressing what they described as attempts to censor or remove references to challenging chapters of U.S. history from National Park Service sites.
“Not every chapter in this story is uplifting—but to understand who we are as Americans, and our journey to become what Ronald Reagan called a ‘shining city upon a hill,’ we have to learn from all of it,” said Heinrich. “We can’t erase or turn away from the hard parts. Because those parts, and how we learned and grew from them, are our shared history, and they should never be erased or twisted for politics. But that’s just what the Trump Administration is trying to do—to censor our history.”
Heinrich described specific examples where signage and exhibits were removed or altered following an executive order signed by President Trump requiring federal agencies to review how National Park Sites portray American history. According to Heinrich, signs referencing ecology and Wabanaki cultural history were removed at Acadia National Park; mentions of activists Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera were scrubbed at Stonewall National Monument; and photos depicting the experiences of enslaved people were ordered taken down for being "disparaging of Americans." He also noted that mentions of climate change had been erased at Glacier National Park, while references to Native Tribes were removed at Yellowstone.
The senator warned that signs featuring languages other than English—such as Tewa or Spanish translations in New Mexico—could also be targeted for removal under current policies. He argued that these actions risk silencing stories essential for understanding America’s complex past.
“President Trump is dumbing down our history. He is cheapening our National Parks. But he will not take our history from us. We will tell these stories again and again, long after HE is relegated to the history books. And knowing the truth makes us stronger,” concluded Heinrich.
