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'In Alaska, It's Denali,' Says Murkowski Introducing Legislation To Preserve The Mountain's Name

By

Justin Housman

Published Date

February 17, 2025
Mount Denali

Denali will remain, regardless of the official federally recognized name / Rebecca Latson file

Senator Lisa Murkowski has introduced a bill to formally change the name of North America's highest peak back to Denali, after an executive order from President Trump renamed it Mount McKinley earlier this year. The legislation is co-sponsored by fellow Republican Senator from Alaska, Dan Sullivan. 

If passed and signed by Trump, Denali would once again be how the peak is referenced in any US records, maps, and other official documents. 

The federal government recognized the mountain's name as Mount McKinley from 1917, when a proclamation named the peak for the country's 25th president, William McKinley, through 2015, after the Obama Administration changed the name to Denali.

The state of Alaska has officially referred to the mountain as Denali for 50 years.

“In Alaska, it’s Denali,” Senator Murkowski wrote in a statement to her website. “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.’”

State lawmakers in Alaska passed a resolution earlier this month urging Trump not to reject the name Denali. 

Trump's executive order gave the interior secretary 30 days to make the name change. But it's possible that by Murkowski simply introducing a bill, that name change will be delayed. The state of Alaska tried to have the federal government change the mountain's name to Denali in 1975, but a lone Congressperson from Ohio, McKinley's home state, kept introducing a bill to keep the name Mount McKinley and that was enough to prevent the official name change from happening. 

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Alaskan House Passes Resolution Urging Trump To Keep Denali's Name
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President-Elect Trump Vows To Change Mount Denali's Name Back To Mount McKinley

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