A statue of 19th-century explorer Gustavus Cheyney Doane at Grand Teton National Park will soon lack its accompanying marker when tourists visit this spring. The removed plaque had posed a question to visitors: "How do we acknowledge the good and bad of a figure?" It detailed how Doane's expedition led to the nation's first national park designation while also noting his role in leading a massacre of at least 173 members of the Piegan Blackfeet, an act he bragged about throughout his life.

The removal exemplifies changes ordered by President Donald Trump's March 2025 executive order directing federal agencies to remove public content that "inappropriately disparages Americans past or living." The Department of the Interior, which manages the country's national parks, has implemented the directive. The Trump administration contends the order ensures American history is presented positively, but critics argue it amounts to historical erasure.

Tom Rodgers, a member of the Blackfeet Nation, described the removals as deeply harmful. "We are killing them all over again," he said, referring to massacre victims. Rodgers called the Piegan Blackfeet massacre one of the "most despicable historical experiences" for Native Americans and criticized what he characterized as incomplete truthfulness in historical narratives, calling it "Orwellian."

The changes are becoming visible as the country enters peak tourist season at national parks nationwide. According to Save Our Signs, an advocacy group tracking National Park Service display modifications, at least 45 changes have been carried out under the executive order.

At Muir Woods National Monument in California, signs documenting Native American and women's contributions have been removed. One eliminated sign had informed visitors that explorer John Muir used racist language to refer to indigenous people in his diaries and disregarded "the genocide they survived." The sign had stated: "This contributes to an idea that indigenous people don't belong in parks."

The administration has also targeted content addressing climate change at monuments situated in natural landscapes. Fort Sumter National Monument in South Carolina has been among the locations affected by these broader content revisions.