Obama to rename Alaska's Mt. McKinley as Denali
US President Obama will announce Monday that his administration is officially redesignating Alaska's Mt. McKinley as Denali, the original name for the 20,237-foot-high mountain given by the area's Alaskan native population, according to Los Angeles Times.
The announcement will come as the president begins a three-day visit to Alaska focused on the issue of climate change, one of Obama's chief policy focuses as he enters his final year and a half in office.
“This name change recognizes the sacred status of Denali to many Alaska natives,” Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said in a statement, noting that the mountain had been known as Denali for generations.
According to the White House, a prospector called the peak Mt. McKinley as a tribute to William McKinley upon his nomination as a candidate for president in 1896, and “the name stuck.”
McKinley, the nation’s 25th president, was assassinated six months into his second White House term. He never set foot in Alaska.
The state of Alaska changed the mountain’s name to Denali, the native Koyukon Athabascan word for “The Great One” or “The High One,” in 1975. But the federal government retained McKinley’s moniker.