President-elect Donald Trump has promised to reinstate the old name of America’s tallest mountain, reversing a change made by then-President Barack Obama nine years ago, which renamed it in honor of 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, a tribute to William McKinley, the 25th president of the United States, who was assassinated in 1901.
However, in 2015, Obama decided to rename the peak Denali, a name favoured by the local native community.
Trump has now stated that he intends to undo Obama’s decision.
“They took his name off Mount McKinley,” Trump told a crowd of supporters in Phoenix on Sunday.
“He was a great president,” Trump continued, referring to McKinley. “That’s one of the reasons that we’re going to bring back the name of Mount McKinley because I think he deserves it.”
McKinley, known for advocating protective tariffs to support U.S. industry, also led the country to victory in the Spanish-American War after becoming president in 1897, according to the White House.
Obama’s 2015 order to rename the mountain explained that McKinley never visited the peak and had no “significant historical connection to the mountain or to Alaska.”
“They took his name off Mount McKinley. That’s what they do to people,” Trump said, addressing the crowd at the final day of AmericaFest.
Obama had signed the order to rename the mountain, opting for Denali, the Athabascan term meaning “the High One.” This name was officially recognized by the state of Alaska in 1975, which pushed the federal government to adopt it.
In March 2017, during Trump’s first term, he met privately with Alaska’s Republican senators, Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, to discuss the possibility of reversing the name change.
The senators, however, advised Trump to keep the name Denali.
