GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK — A sign in Grand Teton National Park (GTNP) has reportedly been removed, with many pointing to the content of the sign as the reason for its elimination.
According to documents obtained by the Washington Post and detailed in a Jan. 27 article, officials with the Trump Administration directed National Park Service (NPS) staff earlier this month to remove or edit signs at 17 parks around the country. In GTNP, a sign was purportedly removed that detailed the history of U.S. Army officer Gustavus Cheyney Doane. The Montana Historical Society states that Doane helped lead the Marias Massacre — a bloody attack on a Blackfeet camp in Montana in 1870. Doane was known for later boasting about his role in the offensive, in which 200 Native Americans were killed, many being women, children and elderly.
In March 2025, President Trump signed an executive order that instructed the Secretary of the Interior to take action “to ensure that all public monuments, memorials, statues, markers, or similar properties within the Department of the Interior’s jurisdiction do not contain descriptions, depictions, or other content that inappropriately disparage Americans past or living (including persons living in colonial times), and instead focus on the greatness of the achievements and progress of the American people.”
GTNP directed Buckrail’s questions to the Department of the Interior, which did not respond by publication time. The Jackson Hole News&Guide stated that the informational sign about Doane in GTNP was not in place on Tuesday morning. The Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center, where the sign was located, is closed to the public for the winter from Nov. 1 to April 30.
In 2022, Yellowstone National Park changed the name of its Mount Doane to First Peoples Mountain after an official review by the U.S. Board of Geographic Names. Doane Peak remains the name of a mountain in northern GTNP on the west side of Jackson Lake.
The Washington Post also reported that installations about climate change were ordered to be removed from Glacier National Park, while part of an exhibit in Grand Canyon National Park was edited to remove references to historic Native American displacement and unsustainable cattle grazing practices. On Jan. 22, NPS staff removed informational panels about slavery from the President’s House site on Independence Mall in Philadelphia. The city is suing the NPS in federal court over the removal of the signs.
The National Park Conservation Association (NPCA) released a statement on Tuesday decrying the “erasure of history and science” at national parks. NPCA’s Senior Vice President for Government Affairs Kristen Brengel responded to the removal of informational displays by saying that the country’s parks are for “honest, authentic” experiences.
“The administration is suppressing truth, facts, and science at our national parks and that should alarm every single American,” Brengel said in the online statement. “This dangerous campaign to erase history and science is a tremendous insult to the national parks we know and love. The administration is forcing National Park Service staff to censor science and history. This is a violation of the core tenets of the National Park Service’s mission.”
