The Interior Department policy behind the removal of historical signs and exhibits from national parks, wildlife refuges, and public lands. Here's what it says, what it does, and how it's being challenged.
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Full Title | "Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History" |
| Issued By | Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum |
| Date Issued | May 20, 2025 |
| Implements | Executive Order 14253 (March 27, 2025) |
| Agencies Affected | National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Bureau of Reclamation |
| Official Text | doi.gov (PDF) |
| Legal Status | Active; challenged in NPCA et al. v. Dept. of the Interior (Feb. 2026) |
Secretary's Order 3431 is the implementing directive for Executive Order 14253. The executive order set the broad policy direction. SO 3431 is the operational order that told agencies what to do, when, and how.
The order directs all Interior Department land management agencies to review every piece of public-facing interpretive content (signs, exhibits, museum displays, brochures, audio tours, and digital media) and to identify and remove any content that falls into two categories:
In practice, this language has been used to target four main categories of content: historical accounts of slavery at plantation sites, climate science at parks experiencing environmental change, Indigenous history and displacement narratives, and LGBTQ+ history at memorial and heritage sites.
Here's how the directives flowed from the White House down to individual park sites:
| Document | Date | What It Does |
|---|---|---|
| Executive Order 14253 | March 27, 2025 | Sets the policy: directs Interior Department to review how American history is portrayed at federal sites |
| Secretary's Order 3431 | May 20, 2025 | Implements EO 14253: sets specific directives, deadlines, and content standards for removal |
| NPS Internal Directives | June–September 2025 | The NPS conducts internal review: park superintendents instructed to assess content using the internal NPS review database |
| Park-Level Removals | 2025–present | Individual parks flag, revise, and remove content. 874+ entries documented across 120+ sites. |
The internal NPS review database was created during the June through September 2025 review process to catalog every interpretive sign, exhibit, and wayside marker flagged under SO 3431. When this database leaked publicly in early March 2026, it became the primary source for documenting the removals and the backbone of this project's interactive map. It's not a perfect dataset (see our data methodology for the full picture), but it's the best starting point we have.
The order has drawn criticism from historians, scientists, and conservation organizations. The Organization of American Historians (OAH), the largest professional society for scholars of American history, issued a formal statement calling SO 3431 "censorship of history in the National Park Service."
The National Trust for Historic Preservation warned that the order threatens the integrity of historic interpretation across the federal system. A national coalition including the Sierra Club called on Secretary Burgum to rescind the order. The Sierra Club has been relentless in pursuing FOIA requests and keeping government agencies accountable on public lands, and their work has helped extend visibility into removals that would otherwise have gone unnoticed. Groups like Save Our Signs have done extraordinary documentation work on the ground, photographing removed exhibits and tracking restorations across the park system.
NPS staff themselves have raised concerns. Internal records show that park professionals flagged some content as "factually accurate" yet were still directed to remove it under the order's "disparagement" standard. The Association of National Park Rangers is one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit challenging SO 3431, and its executive director has called depriving visitors of accurate stories "unthinkable."
It's also worth noting the broader context: since January 2025, the NPS has lost roughly 24% of its permanent workforce, about 4,000 people. Around 1,000 were fired in a single day in February 2025, and another 270+ were targeted in October. The proposed FY2026 budget would cut NPS funding by 36%, or $1.2 billion, the largest reduction in the agency's 109-year history. The parks themselves face a $23 billion deferred maintenance backlog across 75,000+ assets. Nearly 70 parks have reduced visitor center hours, 22 have postponed maintenance, and some are struggling with basic search and rescue. The agency is being asked to carry out a massive content review while simultaneously losing a quarter of the people who do the work.
SO 3431 is facing a major legal challenge in NPCA et al. v. Department of the Interior, filed February 17, 2026. The coalition is represented by Democracy Forward, and we're grateful to them and the National Parks Conservation Association for leading this effort. Taking on the federal government in court takes real courage. The six plaintiff organizations are:
The lawsuit argues that the removal directives are "arbitrary and capricious and contrary to law" under the Administrative Procedure Act. It names Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and acting NPS Director Jessica Bowron as defendants.
In a related action, Federal District Judge Cynthia M. Rufe ordered the NPS to restore exhibits that had been removed from the President's House Site at Independence NHP, ruling that the removal likely violated federal law. The exhibits were partially restored on February 19, 2026.
In March 2026, the coalition filed a motion for preliminary injunction to halt ongoing removals and require restoration of removed exhibits while the case proceeds.
The legal fight is ongoing. We try to keep this page updated as things develop. For a broader look at what's being removed, see our NPS Censorship page. To see the impact at specific parks, explore the interactive map.
SO 3431 implements Executive Order 14253, "Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History," signed by President Trump on March 27, 2025. The executive order frames its directive as a response to what it calls an effort "to rewrite the nation's history, replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative."
EO 14253 directs the Department of the Interior to determine whether, since January 1, 2020, any monuments, memorials, statues, and markers within its jurisdiction contain content that "inappropriately disparages Americans past or living." It also orders the reinstatement of any materials removed since 2020. The Smithsonian Institution is separately directed to review its museums, research centers, and the National Zoo.
The official text is published in the Federal Register and archived by the American Presidency Project at UCSB.
Every flagged, removed, revised, and court-restored entry, mapped and searchable.
🗺 Open the Interactive Map ← Read the Censorship Explainer