US President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to restore the original name of the United States’ tallest mountain, nearly a decade after former President Barack Obama renamed it to honour Alaska’s native community.
The 20,000-foot peak, located in Denali National Park and Preserve in south-central Alaska, had been known as Mount McKinley since 1917. The name honoured the 25th US president, William McKinley, who was assassinated in 1901.
However, in 2015, Obama signed an order renaming the mountain Denali, which means “The High One” in the local Athabascan language, reflecting its traditional name among Alaska’s indigenous people, as per the New York Post.
Speaking at a rally in Phoenix on Sunday, Donald Trump criticised the decision and reaffirmed his plans to reverse it. “They took his name off Mount McKinley,” Donald Trump told his supporters. “He was a great president. That’s one of the reasons that we’re going to bring back the name of Mount McKinley, because I think he deserves it.”
William McKinley, who served as president from 1897, was known for his efforts to promote US industry through protective tariffs and for leading the country to victory in the Spanish-American War. Critics of Obama’s 2015 order pointed out that McKinley had never visited the mountain and had no significant historical ties to Alaska.
Denali had already been officially recognised as the peak’s name by the state of Alaska in 1975, and local leaders had long lobbied for federal recognition of the indigenous name. During Trump’s first term in office, he reportedly discussed the matter with Alaska’s Republican senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan in March 2017, according to CNN. Both senators, however, advised him to retain the name Denali.
As Trump prepares for his upcoming term, the proposal to reinstate Mount McKinley’s name has reignited debate over the balance between honouring historical figures and respecting indigenous heritage.
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Publish date : 2024-12-23 08:02:00
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