"The Interior Department has created a new process for posting information on websites. History is under a microscope."
"National park staffers used to control park websites. But not anymore.
A small group of Interior Department employees has been reviewing new submissions for National Park Service websites since February, in part evaluating the material for compliance with President Donald Trump’s 2025 mandate to present a more positive history of the country at its many historic sites, battlefields and natural wonders.
One review considered an article by a tribal group for a website about the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail. By the time the article was posted, it was scrubbed of references to former President Thomas Jefferson fathering children with an enslaved young woman.
For NPS personnel, the loss of online authority is a big cultural shift for an agency where park staff typically led on portraying information about their sites, often in consultation with local communities and Native American tribes.
“The Park Service has been for most — if not almost all — of its history very decentralized, with a lot of authority, including comms at the park level,” said Jonathan Jarvis, who led NPS during the Obama administration. “This is a very divergent approach.”"
