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Trump vows to change the name of North America's tallest peak from Denali to Mount McKinley

Trump renaming geography

President Donald Trump on Monday vowed to rename North America's tallest peak, Denali in Alaska, as Mount McKinley — reviving an idea he'd floated years ago and drawing a strong rebuke from Alaska's Republican senior senator.

Trump, who took office for a second time Monday, said he planned to “restore the name of a great president, William McKinley, to Mount McKinley, where it should be and where it belongs. President McKinley made our country very rich through tariffs and through talent.” Trump also said he plans to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski in a statement said she disagrees strongly with Trump wanting to change Denali's name.

“Our nation’s tallest mountain, which has been called Denali for thousands of years, must continue to be known by the rightful name bestowed by Alaska’s Koyukon Athabascans, who have stewarded the land since time immemorial," she said.

Messages seeking comment also were left with the offices of Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy and the other two members of Alaska's congressional delegation. Alaska's U.S. senators in 2017 vehemently opposed a prior suggestion by Trump that the name Denali revert back to Mount McKinley.

In 2015, then-President Barack Obama changed the name to Denali to reflect the traditions of Alaska Natives and preference of many Alaskans. The federal government in recent years has sought to change place names considered disrespectful to Native people.

Denali is an Athabascan word meaning “the high one” or “the great one.” The iconic 20,310-foot (6,190-meter) mountain, snow-capped and dotted with glaciers, is in Denali National Park and Preserve.

A prospector in 1896 dubbed the peak “Mount McKinley” after President William McKinley, who had never been to Alaska. The name was formally recognized by the U.S. government until Obama changed it — in spite of opposition from lawmakers in McKinley’s home state of Ohio.

Trump raised the notion of a name change again during a rally late last year, following his election.

“McKinley was a very good, maybe a great president,” Trump said in December. “They took his name off Mount McKinley, right? That’s what they do to people.”

The Tanana Chiefs Conference, a consortium of Athabascan tribes in Interior Alaska, spent years advocating for the peak to be recognized as Denali.

McKinley, a Republican native of Ohio, was the 25th president. He was assassinated early in his second term in 1901.

Alaska and Ohio had been at odds over the name since at least the 1970s. Alaska had a standing request to change the name since 1975, when the legislature passed a resolution and then-Gov. Jay Hammond appealed to the federal government.

Also Monday, Trump outlined a series of executive actions, which included rescinding a 2023 decision by then-President Joe Biden barring drilling on nearly 3 million acres of the Beaufort Sea off the northern coast of Alaska. The U.S. Department of Interior at that time said there had not been a federal oil and gas lease sale in the Arctic Ocean since 2007.

The 2023 decision came around the same time the Biden administration approved a large oil project, known as Willow, in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, angering environmentalists. Litigation around the approval of Willow is still pending.



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