Honoring history is an act of democracy and patriotism

The stories told on public lands and waters and the names given to these places reflect America’s values and self-identity. Telling the real stories of all Americans is patriotic and critical to maintaining democracy. A balanced portrayal of American history helps to cultivate informed and engaged citizens, understand the present, and prevent future atrocities. It is a form of democratic self-defense. But when democracies allow historical distortions to take root, it leads to the creation of nationalist myths that extremists can exploit.

For much of American history, the roles of certain communities in national stories were suppressed and ignored even as they faced extreme acts of violence and discrimination. As a result, attempts to tell an accurate history of America are often incomplete and one-sided. But there has been progress. During the 20th century, the advances in equity for women, Native Americans, Black Americans, immigrants, and others extended to many aspects of life, including the designation and management of public lands and waters.

 

The first national parks were designated as scenic landscapes for mostly wealthy, white men to use for recreation. But over the decades, these places have come to celebrate a more complete tapestry of American history and ideals. For example, Mesa Verde National Park, designated in 1906, was the first national park created specifically to protect Indigenous cultural heritage; George Washington Carver National Monument, designated in 1943, was the first monument dedicated to African American history; and, in 2016, New York’s Stonewall National Monument became the first monument to honor LGBTQ+ history. Additionally, the Christiansted National Historic Site in the Virgin Islands, established in 1952, and the San Juan National Historic Site in Puerto Rico, established in 1949, tell the stories of people living under centuries of colonialism in the U.S. Caribbean territories. These are just some of the sites that honor historically marginalized communities.

The story of America is one of granting more freedom to more people over time—and pushing back against the status quo of patriarchy, white supremacy, and homophobia. In 1983, Wallace Stegner famously wrote, “National parks are the best idea we ever had. Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst.” Many of the nation’s public lands reflect these stories of expanding freedom, from ending slavery at Civil War battlefields such as Gettysburg National Military Park, to the struggles of farmworkers at the César E. Chávez National Monument, to the Civil Rights movement at the Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument.

While these stories illustrate the scope of progress our nation has faced over the centuries, they also tell the difficult stories of when freedom has stumbled—from the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II at the Honouliuli National Monument to the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail, which commemorates the forced removal of the Cherokee people, to the role that slavery played in shaping New York at the African Burial Ground National Monument. These monuments and the history attached to them are important reminders to learn from history and to keep progressing forward.

In Europe, the way societies choose to remember their histories, whether through memorials, museums, or place names, has been central to resisting the return of authoritarian and fascist movements. White supremacy maintains its power when the stories of people of color are hidden, inaccurately told, or erased completely. And when women’s contributions are excluded from the great moments in history, it allows patriarchy to persist.

Attacks on cultural institutions or programming that support multiculturalism, such as national parks and monuments, attempt to delegitimize the stories they tell and inch the country away from democracy and toward fascist-inspired memory politics. Moreover, name changes such as that of Denali drive democratic backsliding and white Christian nationalism by targeting minority groups for erasure. This combination deepens polarization, fosters disillusionment with democracy, and paves the way for the normalization of extremism and the acceptance of authoritarian practices. 

This is an excerpt from an issue brief I co-wrote for the Center for American Progress, "The Trump Administration is Erasing American History Told by Public Lands and Waters."