Kinney blasts removal of Native American history from signage
CHEYENNE (WNE) — A candidate for Wyoming’s lone U.S. House seat is criticizing the removal of signage at Grand Teton National Park that described 19th-century explorer Gustavus Doane’s role in a massacre of Native Americans, calling the move an attempt to rewrite state history.
The signs were taken down under a federal executive order titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” The administration has described the removed material as “improper partisan ideology.”
Lisa Kinney, a Democratic candidate for the U.S. House, said the order does neither.
“This is neither ‘truth’ nor ‘sanity.’ It is outrageous,” Kinney said in a news release. “Why should we allow Washington to determine and rewrite Wyoming history?”
Kinney said the federal government should not have the final say over how the state’s history is told.
“Wyoming is independent, and we do not just roll over when told to do so by the federal government,” she said. She added that the removal amounts to “a disparaging and significant insult to the Native Americans in our state.”
The same order also stripped information from the Fort Laramie National Historic Site that addressed the persecution, forced relocation and displacement of Native Americans, according to the release. In Yellowstone National Park, several signs were flagged for removal, but conflicting guidance has so far kept them in place.
The order’s legality is being contested in federal court. A federal judge had ordered the signs restored by July 4, but a U.S. Court of Appeals has temporarily blocked that ruling, leaving the case unresolved.
Wyoming is not alone: signage and interpretive exhibits have been ordered removed at national parks in other states as well. Roughly 400 National Park Service employees nationwide say they are now barred from discussing the removed historical material with visitors.
“National parks teach our tourists about the history of Wyoming, and the signs should be immediately restored and the teachings resumed,” Kinney said. “We need to stop this Washington attack on our tribes and on Wyoming.”
— The above item was written by Claude.ai off a news release from the Kinney campaign.
This story was published on July 10, 2026.
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