Good news: President-Elect Trump plans to change the name of North America’s tallest mountain, currently known as Denali, back to its original name of Mt. McKinley.
At a recent rally in Phoenix, Trump said he wants to return president William McKinley’s name to the Alaskan mountain because “he was a great president” and “I think he deserves it.” (source)
The mountain was given the name Mt McKinley in 1917 but was changed to Denali, the indigenous word for “High One,” in 2015 by the Obama administration. Obama’s Department of the Interior alleged that McKinley lacked any “significant historical connection to the mountain or to Alaska.” The name originated from a gold prospector who, upon learning that McKinley had won the Republican nomination for president, named the mountain in his honor.
In my opinion, this is great news because it signals Trump’s willingness to take the side of historical figures rather than the politically correct bullies who aim to obliterate them from existence. The renaming of Mt. McKinley took place well before the horrific genocide that erupted in the spring of 2020, so Trump’s plan to restore the name can’t really be counted as reversing any part of this genocide. But it’s cool to see an honor (hopefully) being returned to a historical figure who, as Trump points out, didn’t really deserve to have it taken away. Erasing historical figures – whether in the form of names, holidays, statues, plaques, memorials, or other public art – is something that is rarely reversed. Hopefully the plan to return Mt. McKinley to its rightful name is a sign of similar things to come.