Within hours of taking office, President Donald Trump outlined in one of his many executive orders a mission to celebrate American greatness and to recognise those who have made contributions throughout history.
He jumpstarted the effort by ordering the name of North America’s tallest peak to be changed from Denali back to Mount McKinley in honour of the nation’s 25th president, William McKinley. He also called on the U.S. Interior Department to work with Alaska Natives and others to adopt names for other landmarks that would honour their history and culture.
Little known panel
The U.S. Board on Geographic Names will play a role. The little known panel made up of officials from several federal agencies has been in existence since 1890.
As more settlers and prospectors headed west following the American Civil War, it became apparent the federal government needed some kind of consistency for referencing landmarks on maps and in official documents.
In comes President Benjamin Harrison. He issued an executive order establishing the board in hopes of resolving some of the confusion.
President Theodore Roosevelt took it further in 1906, making the board responsible for standardising geographic names for use across the federal government. That included changing names for some spots and identifying unnamed features.
It was President Franklin Roosevelt who dissolved the board in 1934, opting instead to transfer duties to the Interior Department. After World War II, Congress changed course and reestablished the panel.
The board under the Trump administration will have new members, but the makeup will be the same with representatives from several agencies ranging from the Interior and Commerce departments to the Post Office and the Library of Congress. Even the CIA plays a role when the board considers place names beyond U.S. borders.
The members are appointed for two-year terms by the respective heads.
The board is quite aware of the importance of a name, noting in its guiding principles, policies and procedures that the names of geographic features throughout the U.S. reflect the nation’s history and its changing face.
The board points out that names of Native American origin are found sprinkled throughout the land and there are traces of the languages spoken by early explorers.
“It is in these ways and many others that geographic naming gives us a clear, exciting profile of the United States that is unmatched in any other medium,” the board states.
Case of Mount McKinley
In the case of Mount McKinley, original inhabitants had unique names for the mountain long before prospectors showed up. For the Koyukon Athabaskans, it’s always been “deenaalee,” roughly translated as “the high one.”
Despite never having visited Alaska, McKinley’s name became attached to the mountain in 1896, labelled by a gold prospector after the Republican was nominated as a presidential candidate. McKinley, who signed legislation in 1900 making gold the sole standard for U.S. currency, was assassinated just six months into his second term and the name Mount McKinley stuck.
Alaska wasn’t a state then and it would take decades before elected officials there would petition the Board on Geographic Names to return to what locals knew best. But their efforts were repeatedly blocked. Then in 2015 President Barack Obama issued an order making Denali official for federal purposes.
Like so many sites across the U.S., the peak is more than a tourist attraction. It’s woven into the cultural fabric of those who call the area home, said Valerie Grussing, executive director of the National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers. “It’s a sacred place,” she said, adding, “the name we use for it should reflect that sacred relationship between the people and the land.”
In the 1960s and 1970s, the Board on Geographic Names took action to eliminate the use of derogatory terms related to Japanese and Black people.
More recently, former U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland initiated a campaign to eliminate offensive names at hundreds of places around the nation.
In 2023, the board voted to change Mount Evans southwest of Denver to Mount Blue Sky. Two years earlier, more than a dozen sites with racist and offensive names in Texas were renamed. In 2008, the board approved a proposal to change the name of a prominent Phoenix mountain to Piestewa Peak to honor Army Spc. Lori Piestewa, the first Native American woman to die in combat while serving in the U.S. military.
The Interior Department on Friday took steps to update the peak’s name in the federal Geographic Names Information System. Since the board’s decisions are binding only for the federal government, it’s possible Denali will live on through Google and Apple map applications and other private mapping services.
Any person, government agency, Native American tribe or organization can submit a proposal to the board, as long as there is a compelling reason and evidence to support it.
Once settled on, the names are listed in the official repository of geographic names used by the federal government.
Published – January 28, 2025 10:06 am IST
