GRANADA, Colo. (KOAA) — On a windy Thursday at Amache National Historic Site, only a handful of people are visiting the former Japanese incarceration camp.
The temperatures flirt with triple digits on Colorado’s southeastern plains.
Near the site’s main entrance outside the small town of Granada, a series of informational posts welcome those wishing to learn more about one of America’s darker chapters.
On the first of these posts, a new piece of paper, placed behind plexiglass, is stirring controversy amongst park advocates and descendants of Amache.
The new signage, placed following a Trump executive order, encourages visitors to report anything negative about America by scanning a QR code and leaving a comment.
The specific language reads: “Please let us know if you have identified…any signs or other information that are negative about either past or living Americans or that fail to emphasize the beauty, grandeur, and abundance of landscapes and other natural features.”
It might seem simple, but a growing chorus fears it could lead to a whitewashing or revisionist history not only at Amache, but at other sites that portray the complexity and brutality of US history.
AMACHE NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE: NEAR GRANADA, COLO.
At Amache, over 10,000 people lived “behind barbed wire and under armed guard,” as one entry message states. These men, women, and children were all of Japanese descent and two-thirds were American citizens.
The Granada Relocation Center, also known as Amache, was one of ten Japanese incarceration camps built in the US after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor.
Amache, only established as a National Park Service (NPS) unit in early 2024, serves as a reminder of a grim period in American history.
“We're worried about whitewashing. We're worried about this effort, especially as we approach our country's 250th anniversary–and that's next year–how this administration is really going to be talking about all Americans and all American history,” says Tracy Coppola, the Colorado Senior Program Manager for the National Parks Conservation Association.
“And really just watering down and sanitizing the foundation of this country, and it weakens us. I know these are hard stories to tell.”
But just days after the new NPS signage went up at Amache, a small act of defiance surfaced.
Blowing in the wind–a piece of white paper in a plastic cover–taped right next to the controversial order. It was placed by an unknown protester, agitated by the risk of revisionist history posed by the NPS message.
“It was the Spring of 1942 and President Roosevelt decided to treat people of Japanese descent a fabulous free vacation at one of ten fantastic luxury resorts built just for the occasion,” the paper starts.
The small protest writing, which reads like a dark joke about what could happen should Amache’s history be whitewashed, was there as of June 19.
Kirsten Leong, a fourth generation descendant of Amache (and recently retired federal employee), is the vice president of the Amache Alliance, a group with a mission to preserve the WWII incarceration site.
“A lot of the things that we're trying to bring out with the history is just being heard, the historical facts, and depending on how they're told, they can be interpreted as personal attacks.” Leong says. “And that's not the intention at all.”
Leong says she didn’t discover her familial connection to Amache until she was in her 40s, because those who experienced it tended to internalize the trauma and avoid speaking about it, she says. Now, she wants to preserve these sites so future generations can learn too.
She worries the new signage is part of a bigger issue facing public lands with the current administration and the possible budget bill making its way through Congress. The bill has language to sell off public lands, cut the operating budget for what many say is an already underfunded National Parks Service, and to give control of some NPS sites back to the states.
“Well, this isn't a state story,” Leong says. “It's a national story.”
She hopes park visitors will scan the QR code on the new signs and write about the importance of preserving all aspects of American history, like Amache.
SAND CREEK MASSACRE NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE: NEAR EADS, COLO.
About an hour to the north of Amache is the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site, near the small Colorado town of Eads.
Like Amache, the Sand Creek Massacre site is a smaller unit of the NPS that holds the memories of a terrible chapter in American history.
In November 1864, American troops massacred hundreds of Cheyenne and Arapaho men, women, and children as they sought peace during America's western colonial expansion.
The Sand Creek site is located where the massacre took place, and the new NPS signage is posted in two locations at the site.
“This is one big, big indication that this administration doesn't really understand what the Park Service is for, and just how beneficial parks are to tell our full story,” says Tracy Coppola with the National Parks Conservation Association.
Coppola says the Park Service has never been partisan and always had strong backing across the aisle. She also fears the new signs could bring unwarranted scrutiny upon the park rangers, whose job it is to tell the full story of their sites.
“Certainly if you're a ranger at Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site or Amache National Historic Site, you're doing your job to tell the truth about some of the ugliest and most shameful chapters of our history,” Coppola says. “Your job is directly at threat from these signs.”
All of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribal members contacted for this report were preoccupied with their annual renewal and Sundance ceremonies.
But Fred Mosqueda, the outreach specialist for the Arapaho Language and Culture Program for Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes was able to send his thoughts in an email.
“It is sad that our true history is, once again, being pushed aside for a glorified version of the oppressor,” Mosqueda says.
TRUMP’S ‘RESTORING TRUTH AND SANITY’ EXECUTIVE ORDER
This NPS controversy traces back to a March 27 executive order signed by President Trump titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” where Trump claims there has been a decade-long effort to cast American history in a negative light.
Amongst other points, he directed the Department of the Interior to ensure that National Parks sites “focus on the greatness of the achievements and progress of the American people.”
Trump’s executive order was reiterated in a May 20 order from Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.
In that order, Secretary Burgum is giving NPS and other public land agencies 120 days to replace content that “inappropriately disparages Americans past or living.”
Burgum’s order directs each land management bureau to post the signage “throughout each property, in as many locations within each property as necessary and appropriate to ensure public awareness.”
Public comments collected thus far since the signs went up June 13 haven’t been made public, but news site Government Executive reported last week that according to the initial 200 comments received–which were leaked to the news site–“visitors implored the administration not to erase U.S. history and praised agency staff for improving their experiences.”
ACKNOWLEDGING HISTORY, NOT ERASING
Dawn DiPrince is the president and CEO of the History Colorado Museum in Denver as well as the state historic preservation officer. History Colorado hosts permanent exhibits on both Amache and Sand Creek.
“I think our country is really strong enough to understand the history of our nation in its totality, and I think that anything less than that makes us weak,” DiPrince says. “I think it hurts our future, and in many ways, it denigrates the people who came before us.”
DiPrince says there’s a proper way to do historical interpretation, and that’s by centering on historical and evidence-based truth. She says the new signs ordered by Trump and Secretary Burgum seem to encourage people to view history with their feelings instead of the facts.
“I think if you love this country–I love this country–you believe in it. You believe that America is strong enough to be able to understand that we have been imperfect, that we can do better,” says DiPrince. “We can learn from our mistakes. We should learn from our mistakes. And I think that you really can understand and see America as a strong country, when we have the courage to have historic sites like Camp Amache and Sand Creek Massacre Historic Site.”
Email Senior Reporter Brett Forrest at brett.forrest@koaa.com. Follow @brettforrestTVon X and Brett Forrest News on Facebook.
Brett can also communicate via encrypted apps like Signal. Due to the sensitive nature of ongoing reporting from federal actions, he is willing to take steps to protect identities.
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