President-elect Trump this week promised to reverse former President Barack Obama’s 2015 decision to change the name of North America’s highest mountain to the Koyukon-Athabaskan name “Denali,” meaning “high or great.”
President Trump made this promise to conservatives at a conference in Phoenix, noting that President William McKinley was also a Republican who believed in tariffs. He first vowed in August 2015 to reverse President Obama’s actions, calling it an “insult to the state of Ohio,” where McKinley was born and raised.
In his remarks in Phoenix, he also called out Democrats’ renaming of Southern military bases named after Confederates, including Fort Liberty in Fayetteville, North Carolina, once named after Gen. Braxton Bragg. He also promised to cancel it.
The 20,320-foot mountain was first named Mount McKinley in 1896 by gold prospector William Dickey. Dickey, a native of Ohio, learned that he had won the Republican presidential nomination, and the silver prospectors he met criticized those who favored Democrat William Jennings Bryan and his silver medal program. dollar standard.
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William McKinley (1843-1901) of Ohio served as the 25th President of the United States from March 4, 1897 until his assassination in September 1901. (Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Six months into his second term, McKinley was visiting Buffalo, New York, when anarchist worker Leon Czolgosz assassinated him empty-handed. Czolgosz believes that the root of economic inequality lies with governments, and was reportedly inspired by the assassination of King Umberto I of Italy in 1900.
However, many Alaskans seem to prefer the historical name Denali.
Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski told the union that President Trump’s plan to take back Mount McKinley was a “terrible idea.”
“We went through this already with President Trump at the very beginning of his first term,” she said Monday.
Murkowski said both she and Sens. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska and McKinley, Ohio, support the Denali name.
”[Denali] “It’s a name that’s been around for thousands of years… Shouldn’t it have a name like ‘The Great One’ – the tallest mountain in North America?” Murkowski added.
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Denali, near Talkeetna, Alaska (AP Photo/Becky Bowler, File)
In 2015, Sullivan told the Anchorage Daily News that “Denali belongs to Alaska and its people” and that naming rights are held by Alaska Natives.
In a statement to KTUU this week, Sullivan said many Alaskans prefer the name given to Peak by “a very tough, very strong, very patriotic Athabaskan people.”
Meanwhile, then-Rep. Ralph Regula, R-Ohio, tried for decades in Congress to block the name change from McKinley to Denali because the president with the same name was from the Canton area.
Regula, who passed away in 2017, slammed President Obama for changing his name, saying he “considers him a dictator.”
Regula appeared to cite his own work that lays out procedural hurdles and language added to Home Affairs bills, saying President Obama cannot change such laws “with the stroke of a pen.” said.
“Do you want to change the Ohio River?” he joked.
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Sen. Lisa Murkowski speaks at a press conference. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
But some Ohio officials respect the wishes of Alaskans.
Current Lt. Gov. Jon Husted told the Dayton Daily News in 2015 that if Denali is what Alaskans want, he doesn’t want Alaskans to dictate how Ohio should be renamed, and he understands as well. spoke.
“So I don’t think we should tell Alaskans they should do it in their state. But I’m a big fan of Canton and McKinley, so I’m happy to see more talk about him,” he said at the time. he said. .
Charles Creitz is a reporter for Fox News Digital.
He joined Fox News in 2013 as a writer and production assistant.
Charles covers media, politics and culture for Fox News Digital.
Charles is a Pennsylvania native and graduate of Temple University with a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism. Story tips can be sent to charles.creitz@fox.com.
