Trump has promised to change the name of the highest peak in North America from Denali to Mount McKinley

President Donald Trump vowed Monday to rename North America’s tallest peak, Denali in Alaska, as Mount McKinley — reviving an idea that was pushed hard by the state’s political leaders at the time.

Trump, who took office for the second time on Monday, said he plans to “return the name of the 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 taxes.” through talent”.

Trump also announced plans to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America.

Messages left for Alaska’s three-member Republican congressional delegation and Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy were not immediately returned. In 2017, Alaska’s US senators strongly opposed Trump’s earlier proposal to rename Denali back to Mount McKinley.

In 2015, then-President Barack Obama renamed Denali Reflecting the traditions of Alaska Natives and embracing the preferences of many Alaskans. In recent years, the US federal government has been trying to change place names that are considered disrespectful to indigenous people.

Denali is an Athabaskan word meaning “high” or “great”. The 6,190-meter high snow-capped and glacier-adorned landmark mountain is in Denali National Park and Preserve.

In 1896, an explorer named the peak “Mt. McKinley” after President William McKinley, who had never been to Alaska. The name was officially recognized by the US government until Obama changed it – despite opposition from lawmakers in McKinley’s home state of Ohio.

Trump again brought up the idea of ​​a name change at a rally held after his election at the end of last year.

“McKinley was a very good, maybe a great president,” Trump said in December. “He’s named after Mount McKinley, right? That’s what they do to people.”

Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski is among those opposing Denali’s renaming.

“You can’t improve on the name that the Koyukon Athabaskans of Alaska gave to the highest peak in North America, Denali – The Great Peak,” he said, adding that “the issue should not be reconsidered.”

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

McKinley, an Ohio Republican who became the 25th president, was assassinated in Buffalo, New York in 1901 early in his second term.

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