Thank you for your overview of the NPS roles and it's always interesting to see how organizations that may seem similar may have some significant differences.
I agree that yes, a big part of intrepretation is about connecting visitors to a place, and one of my favourite ways to start things off is to ask everyone where they're from, or what brings them to the site on that given day, as that gives me some information to work with, and I might, while delivering the usual programming, work in some stories of persons or events that might be more relevant to them. There's also a bunch of training, and when it comes to hiring historical interpreters, ability to engage and captivate audiences is the main attribute that's sought after.
I did a bit of a look into NPS roles after reading your post, and was intrigued by how the NPS has interpretive rangers who are basically interpretive guides with additional responsibilities, but as you've noted, also more career options.
In Canada, park rangers are specific to national parks and while they may deliver programming, they're more into the enforcement side of things. As such, at a historic site, one would not encounter a ranger - everyone would be an interpreter, who can become a interpreter team leader (who does have additional responsibilities such as developing programming, and in that sense would be similar to an interpretive ranger in the US), and from there, a site manager.
Besides uniformed (dark green / white) interpreters and interpreters in period dress, there are, less commonly, first person interpreters (i.e. they're portraying a specific person (or composite) from the period, and when you interact with them, they are in character, which can get confusing for those who don't realize that they're in character or might not be familiar with the period, but for those who are, it can be fun)
Hello
Canada sounds similar but a little different. NPS staff rules are very clear and strict about what can be worn and said. All the people doing historical reenactments or demonstrations that I have seen were not park staff but volunteers part of each National Park site’s association. They are associations that are their own entity with their own paid staff and volunteers. Their goal is to support the park and fundraise. Often they will be who runs the gift shops. They are wonderful groups. I always saw them showing deference to park staff though I have found their personnel do not understand and appreciate the park resources like NPS staff do.
To explain, in NPS the park is referred to as the resource. After Visitor safety, Its protection is the first priority of all Park staff. They take it very seriously. I have seen Rangers in full uniform picking up garbage (not their job) and stopping people taking even the tiniest bit of a plant from the park. In U.S. National Parks it is illegal to remove anything from the park. A policy that I think is hard for visitors to understand but a park can have more than a million visitors a year. That is enough to cause damage to the resource if people are taking home rocks, plants, bag of sand.
I loved do interp work. I was good at it. I did not ask the visitors about themselves except to see if they had heard of or seen something before. We were trained to describe everything in three ways so all visitors with all levels of knowledge or ways of understanding would be included. For example, “I hope you all noticed the door we came through, the entrance over there, the first opening where the walkway began.”
I could keep doing that during a program so subtly that it was not noticeable but it meant almost no one was left behind. I think I tried harder and it was so important to me because I have always felt left out when things were being explained and no on tried to help me understand. They would just repeat the thing I did not understand the first time. No help.
If I saw someone seeming to have trouble understanding things I would pretend I was confused and needed to repeat something for my own sake or fumble a little pretending I was not able to explain it in the way I began and change to another way. I did that because I could see they were lost but I made it seem like it was me so no one was embarrassed. If anyone needed ask a question and seemed uncomfortable I would answer it quickly and in a way that brought that attention of the group back on me so people forgot someone else asked. This way people started feeling okay asking questions when maybe normally they would not.
We were trained how to point to things, never with a single finger, things like that. We were required to be ‘polite and courteous at all times’ except in situations of safety. In those instances we were allowed to do anything necessary, including shouting or even grabbing a visitor. Stairwells and railings near cliffs for example.
There was a policy that I never trusted NPS enough to test. Everyone knew about it but I did not see anyone try it. We were allowed talk about anything that was historically accurate and if visitors were upset by the language or subject matter we would be protected but it felt too risky so I stayed away from it. For example though this site will not let me use the actual word, there was a particular rope splice that accurately had the name of a slang term for a part of anatomy. I always held back on that though it bothered me. It was used for hundreds of years.
We were not allowed to support visitor’s versions of history if we knew they were not correct. The would say anything they liked but we could not agree with it to be polite though we would usually work around confronting them in front of their friend’s or families.
A small example was a mother who was talking to her son about pirates like they were something fun from the movies. Only when pushed did I start explaining what they really were and did. Nothing fun for a kid.
We could give an educated opinion but never a political one and we could never assert facts unless they were actual facts, not our personal beliefs. I liked that, the fairness, good and bad we were supposed to discuss history (I worked in historical park sites).
National Parks in the United States are paid for by the people, including non-citizens. The parks belong to everyone and any one of those people can ask anything about the parks including any funding or the salaries of staff. This does not mean it would be given to them at the park, they could contact the Park Service of another agency. But it was their park. They paid for the uniforms, the paint on the buildings, everything and the park was their business but also their responsibility since it did belong to everyone they could not damage it, for example - taking something home with them.
Getting a job with the National Park Service is very difficult and can take years. You can start as a volunteer and after all your training and work experience take a seasonal position. You might have to do that several times until a permanent one opens up and you can apply but a lot of other people are applying too.
Graduating college with a degree in resource management is where a lot of staff start. They apply for the lowest paying jobs and take them in any park that hires them. So you could move anywhere just for the chance. Everyone else at that level is doing the same thing. It can take years of that before you get what we call your “home park” where you will stay and finish your career. A friend started at NPS with a master’s degree as a GS5 (terrible low pay) and did that for ten years going all over the country from park to park trying to start his career. He put up with a lot. He worked in deserts, island parks, where there was lots of snow, always moving and meeting new people. The last I spoke to him he was a GS11 supervisory Park Ranger (he started as a Guide). A lot of people work for him and he makes good money.
Another way in to NPS is to be a mili veteran, they are given hiring priority, automatically moved to the top. Also working for the Peace Corp, they get the same benefit.
