Bucking Trump order, GOP Sens. Murkowski and Sullivan push to change Mount McKinley's name back to Denali

Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, is the original cosponsor.

"In Alaska, it's Denali," Murkowski, said, according to a press release. 

"Once you see it in person, and take in the majesty of its size and breathe in its cold air, you can understand why the Koyukon Athabascans referred to it as 'The Great One.'  This isn't a political issue - Alaskans from every walk of life have long been advocating for this mountain to be recognized by its true name. That's why today I once again introduced legislation that would officially keep this mountain's quintessential name, 'Denali.'"

"In 1917, the country officially honored President McKinley through the naming of North America's highest peak.  Yet after nearly a century, President Obama's administration, in 2015, stripped the McKinley name from federal nomenclature, an affront to President McKinley's life, his achievements, and his sacrifice," the executive order declares.

Trump's order directed the Interior secretary to "reinstate the name 'Mount McKinley.'"

"The Secretary shall subsequently update the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) to reflect the renaming and reinstatement of Mount McKinley.  The national park area surrounding Mount McKinley shall retain the name Denali National Park and Preserve," the order states.

The same order also directed the Interior secretary to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America.

The controversy over the name of the continent's tallest peak has persisted over the years, and Murkowski has been engaged in the debate for more than a decade. 

She previously pushed measures regarding the mountain's name several times in the past, including one in 2015 for which Sullivan was the original cosponsor.

"President Obama wants to change the name of Mt. McKinley to Denali after more than 100 years. Great insult to Ohio. I will change back!" Trump declared in an August 2015 tweet.

He asked about potentially changing the name while meeting with Murkowski and Sullivan, but the senators expressed their opposition, Sullivan, whose wife is Athabascan, recounted in 2017, according to adn.com. 

If "you change that name back now, she's going to be really, really mad," the senator said he told Trump, according to the report. "So he's like, 'all right, we won't do that,'" Sullivan recalled.

Murkowski is one of the GOP senators who voted to convict Trump after the House impeached him in 2021 following the U.S. Capitol riot - but notably, the Senate vote, which was held after Trump had already departed from office, failed to clear the threshold necessary for conviction.