When you're the first person to discover a peak, you get to name it. Everyone knows this, climbers and mountaineers especially. Unless of course, you aren't considered a person. In the 1700s, the first records of the mountain we call Denali were noted by Koyukon Athabascans, who had inhabited the area for thousands of years, until the US told them they couldn't own land or speak their language or worship, hunt, or live there anymore. Denali means "the great one" or "the high one" in Koyukon-Athabascan. For those who might argue that you can only name a mountain if you're the first to stand on top of it, despite the fact that the 20,310-foot massif had been the ancestral homeland of multiple tribes, you'd still have to consider Walter Harper. Walter Harper, a Koyukon Athabascan from the village of Tanana made the first ascent of Denali in 1913, guiding missionary Hudson Stuck on the summit expedition. And while a gold prospector in 1896 decided to re-name the mountain Mount McKinley as a show of support for the newly elected president, that's sort of like me deciding that the Rocky Mountains should be named Theall Mountains, in honor of my late father, or the Tugger Range because I hiked a trail in the area with my dog. That said, if the name of a place or monument is offensive and on the wrong side of history, I'd argue it should be corrected. But as far as Denali is concerned, I don't think anyone can find fault with a name that references the grand height of a mountain (while I'm guessing President McKinley had a few detractors). Thankfully, in 2015, Obama officially returned the moniker of the mountain and its national park to Denali.
Names matter, especially to Alaskans, be they Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, or Independent. So while Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office to rename North America's highest peak Mount McKinley, he's faced bipartisan resistance from Alaska lawmakers, including Republican senator Lisa Murkowski who tweeted: "Our nation's tallest mountain, which has been called Denali for thousands of years, must continue to be known by the rightful name bestowed by Alaska's Koyukon Athabascans who have stewarded the land since time immemorial." Likewise, Republican senator Dan Sullivan urged Trump not to alter the name. He reported a conversation where he told Trump, "Alaska Native people named that mountain over 10,000 years ago. And by the way, that was the Athabascan people, and my wife's Athabascan, and if you change that name now, she's gonna be really, really mad." Um, yeah. As she should be. As we all should be.
A concession has been floated that the mountain be renamed McKinley, but the park itself stay Denali National Park. But, this isn't a battle of semantics. It's another attempt to erase culture. As editor of Alaska magazine, during my tenure, we will continue to refer to the mountain and the park as Denali. Always Denali.
Darned straight it's Denali and always will be, period.
While I grew up in Alaska, it was known as mt McKinley. So part of me took offense when it was ‘renamed’ Denali. I sincerely understand and agree with the return of the name to Denali, though I will always know which mountain is meant.. Denali or McKinley.