L’Although this announcement may seem innocuous, it turns out to be symbolically very strong. Donald Trump, newly inaugurated 47e President of the United States, declared, among his first measures, his wish to rename Mount Denali, the highest peak in the country (6,190 meters), to Mount McKinley. “In a short time […]we will restore the name of a great president, William McKinley, to Mount McKinley, where it should be. » An eminently political proposition, as the McKinley name is, on the American continent, a bearer of history.
Because the mountain located in Alaska has already had this name. Officially baptized in 1896 by prospector William Dickey, he then decided to name it after William McKinley, former governor of Ohio and who, at that time, was running for president of his country. Position that he actually obtained on March 4, 1897. Without, until his death, assassinated on September 6, 1901, setting foot in Alaska.
ALSO READ The (very) juicy business of Donald Trump derivative productsAs explained by Washington Post in 2015, the name of this summit, officially adopted by the federal government in 1917, had long been the subject of debate. In 1975, the state of Alaska officially supported a name change, followed by Ohio’s representatives in Congress. The question divided: William McKinley’s supporters believed that this tribute to the assassinated martyr president should be kept.
An imperialist president
Others argued for a return to the Native American name “Denali”, “the one who is high” in Koyukon, a Native American language. What recognition, they reasoned, needed a man whose face was already on the $500 bills? Furthermore, on the 25the President of the United States had promoted American imperialism, leading the Spanish-American War which, in 1898, led to the colonization of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Haiti, the Philippines and Guam. A controversial figure for a Native American people who have suffered from these imperialist aims.
The subject was not closed until August 2015. The then American president, Barack Obama, formalized the change of name of the mountain to Mount Denali, a few days before a visit to Alaska. In a press release, the US Department of the Interior justified this change by recalling that McKinley had never visited these places and also had no “significant historical connection with the mountain or Alaska”. Enough to delight the indigenous populations, who felt that the importance of the mountain in the local history of the Athabascans deserved to give it back its traditional name.
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“It’s symbolic, but from now on all maps and descriptions will bear the traditional name,” explained to Washington Post Julie Kitka, president of the Alaska Federation of Natives. The decree implementing the name change was signed on August 28. Despite criticism from the Republican camp. John Boehner, Speaker of the House of Representatives, expressed his “deep disappointment” after the announcement, explaining that William McKinley had “served his country with honors during the Civil War.”
During his first term, Trump already wanted to change this name. Local elected officials were opposed to it, including his own supporters. For this second term, the re-elected president does not intend to throw in the towel on this subject, which appears minor, but which nevertheless has very significant political significance.
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