{"id":10221,"date":"2026-02-17T18:11:49","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T18:11:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2026\/02\/17\/trump-administration-is-erasing-history-and-science-at-national-parks-lawsuit-argues-los-angeles-times\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T18:11:49","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T18:11:49","slug":"trump-administration-is-erasing-history-and-science-at-national-parks-lawsuit-argues-los-angeles-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2026\/02\/17\/trump-administration-is-erasing-history-and-science-at-national-parks-lawsuit-argues-los-angeles-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump administration is erasing history and science at national parks, lawsuit argues – Los Angeles Times"},"content":{"rendered":"
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WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/span>Conservation and historical organizations sued the Trump administration on Tuesday over National Park Service policies that the groups say erase history and science from America\u2019s national parks. <\/p>\n

A lawsuit filed in Boston says orders by President Trump and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum<\/a> have forced park service staff to remove or censor exhibits that share factually accurate and relevant U.S. history and scientific knowledge, including about slavery and climate change. <\/p>\n

The changes at exhibits came in response to a Trump executive order<\/a> \u201crestoring truth and sanity to American history\u201d at the nation\u2019s museums, parks and landmarks. It directed the Interior Department to ensure those sites do not display elements that \u201cinappropriately disparage Americans past or living.\u201d<\/p>\n

The groups behind the lawsuit said that campaign to review interpretive materials has escalated in recent weeks, leading to the removal of numerous exhibits that discuss the history of slavery and enslaved people, civil rights, treatment of Indigenous peoples, climate science, and other \u201ccore elements of the American experience.\u201d <\/p>\n

The suit was filed by a coalition that includes the National Parks Conservation Association, American Association for State and Local History, Association of National Park Rangers and Union of Concerned Scientists. It comes as a federal judge on Monday ordered that an exhibit about nine people enslaved by George Washington must be restored at his former home in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

The park service removed explanatory panels last month from Independence National Historical Park, the site where George and Martha Washington lived with nine of their slaves in the 1790s, when Philadelphia was briefly the nation\u2019s capital. The judge ordered the exhibits restored on Presidents Day, the federal holiday honoring Washington\u2019s legacy.<\/p>\n

Besides the Philadelphia case, the park service has flagged for removal interpretive materials describing key moments in the civil rights movement, the groups said. For example, at the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail in Alabama, officials have flagged about 80 items for removal. <\/p>\n

The permanent exhibit at Brown v. Board of Education National Historical Park in Kansas has been flagged because it mentions \u201cequity,\u201d the lawsuit says. A Pride flag was removed at the Stonewall National Monument in New York City. Signage that has disappeared from Grand Canyon National Park said settlers pushed Native American tribes \u201coff their land\u201d for the park to be established and \u201cexploited\u201d the landscape for mining and grazing.<\/p>\n

\u201cCensoring science and erasing America\u2019s history at national parks are direct threats to everything these amazing places, and our country, stand for,\u201d said Alan Spears, senior director of cultural resources at the parks conservation association.<\/p>\n

\u201cNational parks serve as living classrooms for our country, where science and history come to life for visitors,\u201d Spears added. \u201cAs Americans, we deserve national parks that tell stories of our country\u2019s triumphs and heartbreaks alike. We can handle the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Interior Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe ruled Monday that all materials from the Philadelphia exhibit must be restored in their original condition while a lawsuit challenging the removal\u2019s legality plays out. She prohibited Trump officials from installing replacements that explain the history differently. <\/p>\n

Rufe, an appointee of Republican President George W. Bush, began her written order with a quote from George Orwell\u2019s dystopian novel \u201c1984\u201d and compared the Trump administration to the book\u2019s totalitarian regime called the Ministry of Truth, which revised historical records to align with its own narrative.<\/p>\n

Daly writes for the Associated Press. <\/i><\/p>\n

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More to Read <\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Conservation and historical organizations sued the Trump administration on Tuesday over National Park Service policies that the groups say erase history and science from America\u2019s national parks. A lawsuit filed in Boston says orders by President Trump and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum have forced park service staff to remove or censor exhibits that share factually […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10222,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}