A common sentiment in Alaska is that while President Donald Trump has ordered the name of North America’s tallest peak to be changed from Denali to McKinley, Alaskans will call it what they want.
And popular consensus seems to favor Denali.
Jeff King, a four-time winner of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, whose kennel operates just outside Denali National Park and Preserve, told the Associated Press:
“I don’t know a single person that likes the idea, and we’re pretty vocal about it,” King said. “Denali respects the Indigenous people that have been here and around Denali for tens of thousands of years.”
The 20,310-foot peak had been known as Denali until 1896, when a gold prospector unofficially named the peak after William McKinley in support of the then-presidential candidate.
Even though McKinley had never been to the mountain and had no special connection to Alaska, the peak was officially named in the late Republican president’s honor in 1917. (McKinley served as president from 1987 until his assassination in 1901.)
The name was officially changed to Denali, as a symbolic gesture to the Koyukon people, by the Obama administration in 2015.
On Monday, two resolutions were introduced by Democratic Reps. to register the Alaska Legislature’s opposition to the change back to McKinley. One resolution quotes Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski:
“It is called Denali, which means the great one. So I would just suggest to President Trump, who wants to make everything great, they already have a great name for it.”
Last week, Alaska News Source asked residents via social media what they thought of the name change. The responses were mostly favored Denali over McKinley.
Th top comment reads: “It’s Denali. I don’t know why we are fighting so hard to name it after a President that didn’t even go to AK let alone trying to erase its original and indigenous name.”
A comment in favor of the change: “Mt. McKinley, as it was before Obama.”
–Image showing Mt. Denali in September 2020 courtesy of ©Jay Christensen
