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- By Levi Rickert
Opinion. America will celebrate its 250th anniversary of declaring independence from England next Independence Day, July 4, 2026.
President Donald Trump wants the celebration to go well. He and his White House want to keep all the negative history of the past 250 years under wraps. In preparation for the anniversary, the Trump White House sent a letter to the Smithsonian Institution Secretary Lonnie G. Brunch III that demanded a full audit of content—from exhibit texts and online materials to curatorial process docs and grant records.
All this in service of a mandate to highlight “unity, progress and enduring values,” while sanitizing “divisive or partisan narratives.”
The Trump White House’s approach is Orwellian. In the novel 1984, George Orwell describes a totalitarian regime led by the Party, which seeks to control not only people's actions and speech but also their thoughts and memories.
George Orwell wrote:
“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped…”
In response to the White House letter, the Smithsonian wrote:
“The Smithsonian’s work is grounded in a deep commitment to scholarly excellence, rigorous research, and the accurate, factual presentation of history. We are reviewing the letter with this commitment in mind and will continue to collaborate constructively with the White House, Congress, and our governing Board of Regents.”
The Smithsonian Institution, established over 175 years ago, has long been a bastion of knowledge and cultural preservation. Its mission to increase and diffuse knowledge has fostered a deeper understanding of America's complex history. The Trump White House threatens to undermine that mission by imposing a singular narrative that may exclude the diverse experiences and contributions that have shaped the nation.
The National Museum of the American Indian—with locations in New York City and Washington, D.C.—is one of eight Smithsonian Institutions under audit.
Let’s be clear: the demanded audit is more than a bureaucratic review.
To satisfy the Trump White House, the outcome may result in a sanitized version of history on the treatment of the Indigenous peoples of this land since European contact.
The National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) exists because Native voices were historically erased—because sacred stories and cultural histories were suppressed. If the government now marches in claiming to restore “truth and sanity,” we should ask: Whose truth? Whose sanity?
How can the history of what happened to our ancestors be truthful without telling the stories of mass deaths from disease, starvation, and war? How can our story be told without telling what happened in Indian boarding schools where our ancestors were faced with physical, emotional, and sexual abuse? “Kill the Indian, save the man” was more than a slogan; it was policy.
These truths are not ancient history. Their consequences are lived daily by Native people today. America cannot heal by hiding its wounds.
Telling the full story of Native history isn’t about shame—it’s about justice. And justice begins with honesty.
History isn’t meant to comfort. It’s supposed to provoke. The NMAI doesn’t exist to paint in pastels; it exists to give Native people their rightful place in the American story. Imagine telling young Indigenous visitors that “discord” isn’t allowed in their story—or that the legacy of colonization must be softened to fit a national narrative of exceptionalism.
What is being asked here is erasure through administrative policing of language. The broader implications — grant oversight, questioned curatorship, revamped future exhibitions — threaten to dilute the very mission of the museum that “fosters a richer shared human experience through a more informed understanding of Native peoples.”
This review isn’t about unity—it’s about control. Native scholars, artists, and communities, not political mandates, should lead the way in preserving their history. White House edits have no business rewriting what generations of Native voices have fought to remember.
“People only try to control the narrative in museums, public spaces, or the press when their enemy is the truth. The government’s micromanagement of such institutions is a direct assault on constitutionally protected freedom of speech and the diversity of experiences and histories that make America truly great,” professor Anton Treuer said to Native News Online in reaction to the White House letter.
Some of us remember the Bicentennial in 1976 when the country was seemingly more normal.
On July 4, 1976, the U.S. marked its Bicentennial with a series of official events led by President Gerald Ford. He and his daughter Susan began the day at Valley Forge, where he honored the end of the Bicentennial Wagon Train Pilgrimage. They continued to Philadelphia, where Ford signed the Bicentennial Day Declaration at Independence Hall, reaffirming America's commitment to liberty and justice. Later, joined by First Lady Betty Ford in New York Harbor, they celebrated Operation Sail, featuring naval ships from around the world. The day concluded in Washington, D.C., with the Fords watching fireworks from the White House balcony.
The Bicentennial stirred strong feelings of patriotism and nostalgia, and was seen as a turning point after years of national turmoil including the Civil Rights Movement, Vietnam War, and Watergate.
In his memoir, A Time to Heal, Ford reflected, “Rarely in the history of the world had so many people turned out so spontaneously to express the love they felt for their country… We had regained our pride and rediscovered our faith.”
President Ford did not sanitize the Civil Rights Movement, Vietnam War or Watergate history. He allowed the feelings of the Bicentennial to emerge from the hearts of Americans who loved their country.
Native Americans know the history of their ancestors, yet they enlist in the U.S. military more than any other racial or ethnic group in the United States.
It is not necessary to sanitize history for the 250th anniversary of the United States.
We need not become complicit with the dictates of a U.S. president who will be gone within the next three and a half years.
Thayék gde nwéndëmen - We are all related.
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