Categories: USA

Trump says he will rename Denali to Mount McKinley

Top line

President Donald Trump said one of his first actions after returning to office on Monday would be to rename Denali, North America’s highest peak, to Mount McKinley, the name of the Alaska mountain before 2015 , a move he has suggested in the past to honor the former president. William McKinley.

A boat is seen on the Susitna River near Talkeetna, Alaska, Sunday, June 13, 2021, with Denali at … (+) the background.

Key facts

Trump said in his speech after being sworn in: “We will restore the name of a great president, William McKinley, to Mount McKinley, where it should be and where it belongs.”

Denali had officially been called Mount McKinley in the eyes of the government since 1917, and the debate over its name had been going on for just as long, if not longer, with the Koyukon Athabascan people who lived near the mountain and called it Denali.

It was first named Mount McKinley in 1896 by prospector William Dickey, who named it after McKinley, then a presidential candidate.

In 1916, before the area was named a national park, Charles Sheldon petitioned the Alaska Engineering Commission to name it “Mount Denali National Park” so that the true ancient Indian (sic) name of the mountain Denali (meaning “the Great”) will thus be preserved,” according to the National Park Service.

In 1917, however, the park was named “Mount McKinley National Park”, although this was inconsistent with Athabascan tradition, as they generally did not name places after people.

According to the NPS, a renaming effort began in 1975, when the State of Alaska requested that the name be officially changed to Denali, and in 1980, despite official efforts failing, Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act changed the name of the park. at Denali National Park and Preserve.

Eventually, in 2015, President Barack Obama restored Denali’s name in part to fulfill his campaign promise to improve relations between the federal government and Native American tribes, The New York Times reported.

McKinley never visited the mountain and had no significant historical connection to the area, according to the resolution that ultimately renamed it.

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Chief Spokesperson

Alaska’s two senators, both Republicans, opposed renaming Denali to Mount McKinley. In December, after Trump floated the idea of changing the name, the Anchorage Daily News reported that Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan spoke in favor of retaining the Athabascan place name for the mountain. Murkowski said on X, formerly known as Twitter, “there is only one worthy name for the highest mountain in North America: Denali – the Great.” Sullivan said through a representative that he “prefers the name that the very tough, very strong, very patriotic Athabaskan people gave the mountain thousands of years ago.”

Why does Trump like McKinley?

Trump has praised McKinley, the 25th president, in the past because of the tariffs he put in place. As a representative, McKinley introduced the McKinley Tariff, which was passed in 1890 and significantly increased taxes on foreign goods. Trump himself has said he wants to raise tariffs and has proposed a universal tariff on almost all imports as well as higher levies on products from China, Canada and Mexico.

News

Trump was inaugurated as the 47th president Monday afternoon and made the comment about Denali in his speech after being sworn in. His inauguration was historic: he became the oldest to ever be inaugurated and the second in history to serve two non-consecutive terms. Trump talked about making America great again, immigration policies, ending “the unjust militarization of our Justice Department” and a number of other points he has made regularly at the during his campaign. (Read live updates from the inauguration here.)

Will Trump rename the Gulf of Mexico the ‘Gulf of America’?

Denali isn’t the only name change Trump is considering. The president also said one of his first actions would be to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America, something he has talked about regularly in recent weeks. In early January, Trump said he was seeking to change his name in retaliation for immigration from Mexico, which he called “a very dangerous country.”