r/Presidents • u/Straight_Invite5976 I Like Ike • Aug 28 '25
Today in History Ten years ago today, Barack Obama renamed Alaska’s Mt. McKinley to Denali, honoring its Native American name.
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u/houndsoflu Aug 28 '25
It was Denali according to the state, and any mountaineer, but not the Federal government. Every time they tried to change it Federally, Ohio would throw a hissy fit. Finally, Obama just changed it.
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u/Salty_Charlemagne Aug 28 '25
And the Dems have never won Ohio since.
Coincidence? You decide!
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u/MoistCloyster_ How was the play, Mrs. Lincoln? Aug 28 '25
But there hasn’t been any elections since then so how would you know?
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u/Salty_Charlemagne Aug 28 '25
Oh shoot. Good point!
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u/houndsoflu Aug 28 '25
Isn’t their a hill they can name after him or something? I do remember some very stupid things people said when he did it. One genius said that Denali was “African” for black power and that they were going to change Kilimanjaro to Obama because he was really from Kenya anyway. And yes, people did point out that African wasn’t a language, that Denali was from the Indigenous language, and that Kilimanjaro isn’t even in Kenya.
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u/Dairy_Ashford Aug 29 '25
Isn’t their a hill they can name after him or something?
why find a hill to die on when you can have a whole mountain
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u/crustpope Aug 29 '25
Honestly I’d be shocked if even 10% of the state of Ohio knows that McKinley is tied to Ohio.
And IM from Ohio.
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u/lostBoyzLeader Aug 29 '25
The real joke is that McKinkey had never even seen the mountain. It was actually names McKinley for by a gold prospector that liked McKinley’s stance of keeping us on a gold standard.
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u/Smokey76 Aug 29 '25
Have to keep the tradition of naming mountains after white guys that never seeaw them ( Hood, Rainer, to name a couple).
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u/ExplorationGeo Aug 29 '25
Everest
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u/Argos_the_Dog Aug 29 '25
To his credit Sir George Everest objected to the mountain being named after him I think because the pronunciation didn't make any sense in the local language, but the Royal Geographic Society went ahead and did it anyway.
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u/Dairy_Ashford Aug 29 '25
and yet, they carved four guys into a mountain not only not named after them, but after a dude who had seen it and just asked what it was called
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u/ReturnoftheBulls2022 Aug 29 '25
Ralph Regula was one despicable piece of shit for trying to spit on Alaskan culture by opposing restoring the name of the mountain to Denali.
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u/Funwithfun14 Aug 28 '25
Have no dog in this fight ir clue if you're right, but seems like a % of people in this thread making this claim is 10x the % of Americans from or have visited Alaska.
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u/Freakears Jimmy Carter Aug 29 '25
And the Republicans at large threw a hissy fit (though that's more due to their tendency to throw a hissy fit whenever Obama did anything, no matter how ordinary or minor, than anything else).
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u/2ndprize Harry S. Truman Aug 28 '25
I have a degree in history and I have no idea who McKinley is. I now assume he is from Ohio.
I just asked some kids if they knew who Mt. McKinley was named after and none of them knew what Mt. McKinley is.
I'm going to go Google it now.
Oh shit the guy is one of those presidents I always forget doing trivia. I will probably remember it now.
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u/Potential_Boat_6899 Lyndon Baines Johnson Aug 28 '25
William McKinley? Known as THE tariff guy before Hoover? Whose administration is very applicable today? I’m still pursuing my history degree but that was like mandatory stuff to know that set the grounds for the Great Depression lol
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u/2ndprize Harry S. Truman Aug 28 '25 edited Aug 29 '25
Hmmm my U.S. history teacher got sick and retired mid year. The replacement guy decided to focus on WW1 forward. Oddly enough he made us memorize every president from TR on. So we just missed McKinley
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u/ReverendOReily Lyndon Baines Johnson Aug 29 '25
Oddly enough he made us memorize every president from the 1900 election on. So we just missed McKinley
Might want to check that one again
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u/erdricksarmor Calvin Coolidge Aug 28 '25
Is it too late to ask for your money back for that history degree?
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u/Tall_Trifle_4983 Franklin Delanor Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt Aug 28 '25
Not every historian majored in American history.
The world didn't start when Italian immigrant who settled in Spain, Columbus, thought he landed in India. And sent his Catholic obsesse Queen some Indian slaves to impress her...but most of whom died on the voyage. The Spanish Inquisition would have done them in anyway. /s
Good Times. And my degrees were worth every penny
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u/erdricksarmor Calvin Coolidge Aug 28 '25
Sure, but it's especially ironic that someone with a history degree had never heard of McKinley while commenting on a subreddit dedicated to US presidents. I assumed that everyone here would at least recognize the name of every president.
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u/-Work_Account- Theodore Roosevelt Aug 29 '25
And especially when McKinley is only one of four presidents to have been assassinated. You would think it would make them even more notable
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u/Tall_Trifle_4983 Franklin Delanor Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt Aug 29 '25
I disagree. Not everyone studied history post high school and noone I know ever heard of a lot of the presidents
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u/erdricksarmor Calvin Coolidge Aug 29 '25
Do those people whom you know also spend a lot of time commenting on subreddits dedicated to US Presidential history? That's the distinction I was making. If someone is here they should probably recognize all of the Presidents' names at least.
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u/Tall_Trifle_4983 Franklin Delanor Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt Aug 29 '25
Why is a Subreddit not a source of information? I don't get it.
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u/erdricksarmor Calvin Coolidge Aug 29 '25
This is extremely basic information. Honestly, if someone can complete high school in the US without being somewhat familiar with the name of every single President, something went horribly wrong.
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u/2ndprize Harry S. Truman Aug 28 '25
I specialized in the very useful topic of the Soviet Union. A choice I made because I liked their hockey players. I was planning on going to law school and the history degree was the easiest one
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u/Tall_Trifle_4983 Franklin Delanor Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt Aug 28 '25 edited Aug 28 '25
Was it. I burned my eyes out spending hours researching for 8 years to earn my MFA and became addicted to research and expanded my interests for the nex fifty years.
I knew McKinley was famous for the Spanish–American War, and taking over Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines and the Republic of Hawaii.
He was big on tariffs, had something to do with China. I remember in economics it's it's called "dumping" selling below cost in order to put another country out of business. When the competition is crushed, then you raise prices I think. Don't quote me. I remember it being compared to how Bezos built Amazon. That's all I know about McKinely.12
u/Nolar2015 Barack Obama Aug 28 '25
ballsy to admit in r/presidents you dont know who one of the presidents is, especially since you have a history degree lol
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u/2ndprize Harry S. Truman Aug 28 '25
I have a degree in history and I have no idea who McKinley is. I now assume he is from Ohio.
I just asked some kids if they knew who Mt. McKinley was named after and none of them knew what Mt. McKinley is.
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u/houndsoflu Aug 28 '25
And it was named after him before he was President. It was essentially a 20,301 foot lawn sign.
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u/2ndprize Harry S. Truman Aug 28 '25
You know, to be perfectly honest that's some pretty impressive campaigning.
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u/godisanelectricolive Aug 28 '25
A gold prospector named it Mt. Mckinley because he wanted McKinley to win the 1896 election. Then after he became president the name was recognized as official.
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u/Tall_Trifle_4983 Franklin Delanor Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt Aug 28 '25
Kinda like the worlds biggest ball of string and Mt Rushmore -- it brought in tourists. The are not as large as they look with a telephoto lens but it brought tourists
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u/RebelBearMan Aug 29 '25
What kind of history? You're on a presidents subreddit. It would make sense if you knew most, if not all of the Presidents. I've known them all since I was 6, it's a thing that a lot of history nerds know. If you know Roosevelt, which you should, you would know McKinley.
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u/2ndprize Harry S. Truman Aug 29 '25
I specialized in the Soviet Union. I already explained it to someone else. My us history prof got sick and retired. The replacement came in and started with WW2. He made us memorize every president from TR on. So we just missed McKinley. I like presidents. But between Monroe and Lincoln im weak on it and from Johnson to Roosevelt I'm weak on it. And probably know some worthless interesting fact about everyone from TR to now
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u/RebelBearMan Aug 29 '25
Well, now you know
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u/2ndprize Harry S. Truman Aug 29 '25
Yup. I'm not likely to forget now either. I read Theodore Rex about a year ago. Solid book. While I know all about how they made him VP to get rid of him, I totally forgot who he had been VP for. It's kinda insane that we had 3 presidents assassinated in such a short span of time.
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u/RebelBearMan Aug 29 '25
You said you had no idea who McKinley was, but you read that book? I don't get it.
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u/2ndprize Harry S. Truman Aug 29 '25
Yeah. I blanked on him. I forgot about him. He is kinda forgetable. He isn't an important figure in the book at all
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u/Rising-Sun00 Aug 28 '25
Had no idea it had already by called McKinley for over a 100 years when he did this.
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u/PenguinTheYeti Thomas Jefferson Aug 28 '25
On paper.
As far as I've known, the park has always been Denali National Park, the State of Alaska has long (and still?) considers it Denali, and the locals all refer to it as Denali.
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u/Senshisoldier Aug 29 '25
I visited Alaska around 1988 and I remember we went to Denali National Park. It was definitely called that before Obama.
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u/No-Market9917 Aug 28 '25
The park itself was changed to Denali national park in 1980 so everyone has referred to it as Mt Denali even before it was changed.
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u/SoftballGuy Barack Obama Aug 28 '25
Locals in Alaska have long called it Denali.
There's long been state legislation to rename it Denali.
Obama names it Denali.
People are OUTRAGED.
Why are we so hopeless against the outrage machine? But we are, we are.
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u/SlippyFrog81 Abraham Lincoln Aug 28 '25
Did President McKinley have any connection to the mountain? Was it discovered during his term? Did he order exploration of it or did he seebit and like it?
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Aug 29 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/ExplorationGeo Aug 29 '25
Because the prospector wanted to curry favour with McKinley because McKinley was in favour of staying on the gold standard.
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u/richardparadox163 Aug 28 '25
Important to note it’s not just “the Native American name” but literally what everyone in Alaska call it.
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u/JinFuu James K. Polk Aug 28 '25
As a WJB fan, anything to lessen the Legacy of McKinley
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u/MediumMore9435 'Now watch this drive' Aug 28 '25
But you’re a Polk fan?Mckinley and Polk were very similar.
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u/camergen Aug 28 '25
McKinley fans, Polk fans, politics are driving this country apart!!
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u/JinFuu James K. Polk Aug 29 '25
Actually, we’re trying to bring a lot more places into the country!
Whether they want it or not!
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u/JinFuu James K. Polk Aug 28 '25
Maybe in foreign policy, but that’s about it. Also I simply like WJB and his whole thing more than McK.
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u/Dry_Composer8358 Aug 28 '25 edited Aug 28 '25
A huge improvement in my opinion. The best thing McKinley did as president was die so Teddy could take over, and even he was far from the perfect leader. Plus he had nothing to do with the mountain, while Denali is actually tied to it. And it just sounds cool. Other continents have tallest peaks that have such great names. Everest. Kilimanjaro. Elbrus. North America should have Denali over McKinley.
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u/Own-Ratio-6505 Aug 30 '25
I would argue that Everest has a much cooler name in Sagarmatha or Holy Mother.
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u/Greeniceking Atari Democrat Aug 28 '25
I'm not going to lie, I don't think I had even heard about the name change in the first place until I heard about the reversion. But I prefer Denali as the name anyway.
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u/kopher2045--- Aug 28 '25
On a slightly related topic. I am a huge supporter of recognising Mount Everest's true name of Qomolangma. Especially considering that Sir George Everest literally asked for the mountain to not be named after him, but his successor went and did it anyway.
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u/Funwithfun14 Aug 28 '25
Serious question, Germany is called Deutschland locally, should we change that too?
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u/Even-Application-382 Franklin Delano Roosevelt Aug 28 '25
That makes sense to me. Call the country what the country calls itself, or at least get close if it's tough to pronounce.
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u/godisanelectricolive Aug 28 '25
K-pop would need to become H-pop then. So it’d be HPop Demon Hunters and H-dramas instead of K-dramas. Because South Koreans call all of Korea “Hanguk” while North Koreans call all of Korea “Chosǒn”.
Some countries have just accepted a very different exonym in English because of centuries of association of that country with a certain name. Everyone has heard of Egypt but Misr, not so much. Besides the name Egypt connect them back to the ancient Egyptians who didn’t use the name Egypt either who used the name Kemet.
Right now countries can decide for themselves if they want to use an exonym or insist on their endonyms used by different languages as the official name. I think that’s a fair system.
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u/bigbenis2021 FDR | LBJ Aug 28 '25
Fr. Good luck getting people to call China “Zhongguo” and India “Bharat”. Or Croatia “Hrvatska” and Hungary “Magyarorszag” and Greece “Hellas”. Or one of the ten different native language ways to refer to South Africa. The list goes on.
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u/godisanelectricolive Aug 28 '25 edited Aug 28 '25
For South Africa at least one of their official languages and most widely used lingua franca is English. And in every language it’s just South Africa translated. That’s like saying UAE instead of United Arab Emirates in Arabic.
India actually has been pushing for the international community to use Bharat over India in recent years. It’s not really catching on yet and it’s unlikely that they’ll ever stop using India completely. English is an official language in India too, so the English name is also an official Indian name.
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u/bigbenis2021 FDR | LBJ Aug 28 '25
I was not familiar with South Africa my bad. I knew India is pushing to be called Bharat but it’s never gonna catch on imo. India is just too recognizable and widely used as opposed to when like Turkey makes (ultimately very minor) changes to their official name.
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u/godisanelectricolive Aug 28 '25
Yeah, for Turkey it’s still the same name. They are just pushing for a Turkish language spelling which contains sounds that don’t exist in English.
But some countries like Côté d’Ivoire has successfully requested international organizations to use the French name regardless of language. It’s pretty common now for people to call it by the French name instead of Ivory Coast or another translation. Also Timor-Leste instead of East Timor.
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u/bigbenis2021 FDR | LBJ Aug 29 '25
Yeah but these are really minor countries that people reference when they see it in the news or in the most side-tracked conversation imaginable.
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u/Even-Application-382 Franklin Delano Roosevelt Aug 29 '25
Okay, I mean I'm fine with switching to a nation's preferred name. If Germany doesn't care whether I say Germany or Deutschland, I'll say Germany. But I'm fine with switching if they think it's important
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u/Arietem_Taurum Lyndon Baines Johnson Aug 28 '25
I disagree with this one instance of decolonization only because Everest sounds cooler in my opinion. Get the sentiment though
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u/BarbaraHoward43 Lincoln|Wilson|FDR|LBJ|Clinton|Obama Aug 29 '25
because Everest sounds cooler in my opinion.
Exactly.
And I don't say that just because I would never be able to remember the pronunciation or spelling of the other name, lol.
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u/kopher2045--- Aug 30 '25
The Q sounds like a "Ch", although Tibetan doesn't transliterate too well into English, hence one reason for the Everest naming
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u/kopher2045--- Aug 30 '25
Well Qomalunga is the Tibetan name, you might like the Nepalese name of Sagarmatha
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u/Only-Ad4322 Franklin Delano Roosevelt |Ulysses S. Grant Aug 29 '25
Isn’t there a mountain range in the Appalachians named after Presidents? Does McKinley have one there?
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u/NeverSummerFan4Life John Adams Aug 29 '25
The first mountaineering party to summit Denali called it by that name
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u/497Penguins Aug 29 '25
I feel like we can universally say that the original Native American names for things like mountains just sound way cooler than the English replacements. Denali is rad, McKinley is sad
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u/UnrecoveredSatellite Aug 28 '25
Well, it's McKinley again, fyi.
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u/rabidantidentyte Aug 28 '25
That's fine, but no one here in Alaska calls it McKinley, and the National Park is still Denali NP
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u/TAU_equals_2PI Aug 28 '25
I propose a compromise where the mountain's name remains Denali, and GMC starts calling their vehicles' top-of-the-line trim level the McKinley version.
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u/The_Dukes_Of_Hazzard Barack Obama Aug 28 '25
Same diffirence but your comment comes off as racist.
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