I mean, you're right about people pushing these weird myths, but your wrong about Smithsonian, and any other source of "historical facts." Literally every organization with any influence stands to benefit from manipulating history in favor of whoever is donating to them, buying from them, or directing government funding towards them. That's the nature of humanity, and we will never know the scope or scale of the effects of it. And we'll also never know what is true or false about historical records.