JUNEAU, Alaska — President Donald Trump announced on Monday his intention to rename North America’s highest peak, currently known as Denali in Alaska, back to Mount McKinley. This declaration revives an idea he had proposed in previous years and has faced significant pushback from Alaska’s senior Republican senator.
During his second inauguration, Trump asserted, “I intend to restore the name of a great president, William McKinley, to Mount McKinley, where it rightly belongs.” He noted that President McKinley enriched the country through tariffs and ability. Additionally, Trump mentioned plans to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
Senator Lisa Murkowski expressed her strong opposition to Trump’s proposal, emphasizing the importance of preserving the mountain’s historical name. “Our nation’s tallest peak, which has been called Denali for thousands of years, must continue to be recognized by the rightful name given by Alaska’s Koyukon Athabascans, who have cared for this land for generations,” she stated.
Inquiries have also been made to Alaska’s Republican Governor Mike Dunleavy and the other members of the congressional delegation regarding their stance on this issue. Back in 2017, Alaska’s U.S. Senators firmly rejected a prior proposition by Trump to revert the name from Denali back to Mount McKinley.
In 2015, the name was officially changed to Denali by then-President Barack Obama, reflecting Alaska Native traditions and the preference of many residents. In recent years, the federal government has focused on altering place names deemed disrespectful to Indigenous communities.
Denali, which translates to “the high one” or “the great one” in the Athabascan language, stands at 20,310 feet (6,190 meters). This stunning mountain, adorned with snow and glaciers, resides within Denali National Park and Preserve.
The peak was initially named Mount McKinley in 1896 by a prospector in honor of President William McKinley, who never set foot in Alaska. The name remained officially recognized by the U.S. government until Obama’s change, despite opposition from legislators in McKinley’s home state of Ohio.
Trump has brought up the change again during a rally late last year following his election, commenting, “McKinley was a very good, maybe even a great president. They took his name off Mount McKinley, right? That’s what they do to people.”
The Tanana Chiefs Conference, representing several Athabascan tribes in Interior Alaska, has advocated for the recognition of the mountain as Denali for several years. McKinley served as the 25th president of the United States, born in Ohio, and was assassinated early in his second term in 1901.
Disputes regarding the mountain’s name between Alaska and Ohio have been ongoing since at least the 1970s. Alaska has consistently sought to change the name since a resolution passed in 1975, when then-Governor Jay Hammond appealed to the federal government.
On the same day, Trump also detailed a series of executive orders, including the reversal of a 2023 decision by President Joe Biden, which prohibited oil drilling on nearly 3 million acres in the Beaufort Sea off Alaska’s northern coast. The U.S. Department of the Interior had disclosed that there have been no federal oil and gas lease sales in the Arctic Ocean since 2007.
Furthermore, the 2023 ruling was issued around the time Biden’s administration approved the large Willow oil project in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, which has drawn criticism from environmentalists. Legal challenges to the Willow approval are still ongoing.
