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Grand Teton National Park removed a sign in its visitor center that included details about an early White explorer who participated in and bragged about a massacre of more than 170 Native Americans.
The visitor center still holds a statue of Gustavus Cheyney Doane, who took part in the killing of Piegan Blackfeet, mostly women, children, and elders, along the Marias River in Montana. The Jackson Hole News and Guide reports that sometime in 2023 or 2024, the park added a sign on the statue's pedestal acknowledging Doane's role in the murders. Doane bragged about the attack for the rest of his life, calling it “the greatest slaughter of Indians ever made by U.S. troops.”
Today, after orders from Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and President Donald Trump to remove or edit signs that "disparage Americans past or living," that sign is gone.
Tom Rodgers, a member of the Blackfeet Nation, helped lead a 2022 effort to rename Mount Doane in Yellowstone National Park. Doane Peak in Grand Teton National Park, however, still carries the name.
“No matter what side of the aisle you reside on, or what god you pray to, I think that we can all agree upon the fact that an individual who is responsible for leading a massacre of innocent Blackfeet women and children should be remembered as such,” Rodgers told the News & Guide.
Slavery exhibits being held at National Constitution Center
Meanwhile, the National Park Service told a judge that exhibits about slavery that were removed from the President's House Site in Philadelphia are being stored at the National Constitution Center down the street. The city of Philadelphia is suing the Trump administration over the removal. The Trump administration claims that Philadelphia's lawsuit is an attempt to "censor" the administration and "compel the Federal government to engage in speech that it does not wish to convey.”
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I think some people do see it as a zero-sum game, that somehow acknowledging the bad things that the great men of history did, somehow takes away from them. I’ve never seen it that way.”
