A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
National parks across the country face a deadline today. The Trump administration had instructed them to address any signs, statues or memorials it believes reflect negatively on the country. Now, that executive order was issued back in March, and it was named Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History. NPR's Frank Langfitt has been reporting on this story. So, Frank, why did President Trump order this review in the first place?
FRANK LANGFITT, BYLINE: Well, A, he says over the past decade, there's been an attempt to rewrite our history, driven by left-wing ideology instead of truth. And he wants the parks to focus on what he says, instead, the nation's great achievements and not disparage Americans who either past or living. He's also ordered a similar review of the Smithsonian museums.
MARTÍNEZ: OK, so there are 63 national parks all over the United States. I mean, how many items is the Park Service looking at? I mean, what kind of a job is this?
LANGFITT: Yeah, I was talking to Park Service people yesterday, and they were saying that they're looking at more than a thousand items that employees have reported around the country. Much of the content revolves around the history of slavery. For instance, the administration wants this graphic photo taken down at one park. It's of an enslaved man who was whipped so hard he has scars on his back, and The Washington Post first reported this.
But park employees, they're also flagging a variety of other topics. Let me give you some examples. Signs that address sea level rise and climate change at Cape Hatteras National Seashore is one. Others that explain how Native Americans were forced off park land. And there are even references to the impact of urbanization and agriculture on the Everglades. There was one park employee who wrote that that could, quote, be seen as "disparaging the development of industrial America."
MARTÍNEZ: All right. Now, you've been talking to people inside the Park Service. Are they on board with all this?
LANGFITT: Well, I mean, A, some, no doubt, are - do agree with the president and are helping with this. But the others I've talked to say that most people don't like it. They say employees are mostly flagging these signs so as to avoid getting into trouble. And they think that this is really an attempt to erase uncomfortable parts of the country's history and control intellectual discourse. Now, park employees I've talked to, they don't want us to use their names - they're afraid of being fired. But one described the Trump administration like this - quote, "they want to control the narrative. If you control the narrative, you control the people."
MARTÍNEZ: The people. OK, so speaking to the people, have park visitors had anything to say?
LANGFITT: Well, over the summer, the Park Service provided these QR codes for visitors to comment on any signs that they thought needed to be changed. And, A, I was leaked about 2,200 of these. And I read through them, and there's one visitor who flagged a sign on territorial expansion. It said Native Americans were, quote, "starved into submission to the white man's will." And the visitor found that that was, you know, pretty stark and reductive, but critics like that were really rare. Only a tiny percentage of people actually used the QR codes to criticize the signs. Others said the signs didn't go far enough, and they deplored this whole process.
MARTÍNEZ: So, Frank, what will happen then to the signs and other items that the government decides do not meet the president's mandate?
LANGFITT: Well, some say that, you know, these signs are just - some will be edited. Others will be taken down, and probably some will be replaced. There's a group I was talking to called Save Our Signs, and they've asked park visitors to photograph as many of these signs as possible to capture those that may disappear. So far, they've received nearly 8,000 photos, and what they say they're trying to do is capture all the work that the park employees have done to explain America's history so that it's not actually erased in this process.
MARTÍNEZ: All right, that's NPR national correspondent Frank Langfitt. Frank, thanks.
LANGFITT: Happy to do it, A.
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