{"id":12898,"date":"2025-01-20T13:00:24","date_gmt":"2025-01-20T13:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/?p=12898"},"modified":"2025-01-20T21:57:20","modified_gmt":"2025-01-20T21:57:20","slug":"mount-mckinley-renaming-to-denali","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/mount-mckinley-renaming-to-denali\/","title":{"rendered":"Mount McKinley Renaming to Denali"},"content":{"rendered":"

Background<\/h3>\n
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The renaming of Mount McKinley to Denali in 2015 was the culmination of a long-standing debate over the name of North America\u2019s tallest mountain. The decision involved decades of discussion, legislative efforts, and ultimately executive action by the U.S. Department of the Interior. Here is a chronological account of the events leading up to the name change and its aftermath.<\/p>\n

The Historical Names<\/h4>\n

The mountain, standing at 20,310 feet in Alaska, was originally called Denali<\/strong> by the indigenous Koyukon Athabaskan people, meaning “The High One” or “The Tall One.” This name has been used for centuries in indigenous oral histories.<\/p>\n

In 1896, during the gold rush, a prospector named the mountain “Mount McKinley” after William McKinley, an Ohioan who was running for president. McKinley later became the 25th President of the United States, although he never visited Alaska. The name was made official in 1917 by an act of Congress.<\/p>\n

Efforts to Restore the Name Denali<\/h4>\n

Efforts to restore the name Denali began in the mid-20th century, led by Alaskan residents and lawmakers. Proponents argued that the name Denali better reflected the mountain\u2019s cultural and historical significance to Alaska and its indigenous people.<\/p>\n

Since 1975, the Alaska Board of Geographic Names recognized the peak as Denali. However, federal recognition remained under the name Mount McKinley due to opposition, particularly from Ohio politicians who wanted to preserve the association with President McKinley.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Board on Geographic Names, which oversees place names in the United States, deferred taking action on the matter due to the conflict between Alaskan and Ohioan interests. This stalemate lasted for decades, leaving the mountain with dual identities.<\/p>\n

The 2015 Renaming<\/h4>\n

In 2015, the Obama administration took executive action to officially rename the mountain Denali. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell used her authority under the 1947 Federal Land Policy and Management Act to make the change, bypassing Congress. This act allows the Secretary of the Interior to address naming issues when the U.S. Board on Geographic Names has not acted due to a dispute.<\/p>\n

The announcement was made shortly before President Barack Obama\u2019s visit to Alaska, where he highlighted the impacts of climate change and Alaska’s cultural heritage. The decision to rename the mountain was framed as a recognition of the longstanding name used by Alaska Natives.<\/p>\n

Public and Political Reactions<\/h4>\n

The renaming received mixed reactions. In Alaska, many residents and Native groups welcomed the decision as an acknowledgment of their cultural history. In Ohio, some politicians criticized the move, arguing it disregarded the legacy of President McKinley and bypassed legislative processes.<\/p>\n

The Release of Documents<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

In April of 2016, The Black Vault filed a FOIA request to the USGS for documents relating to the change. As a result, thousands of pages were received, from emails to the minutes of the meetings took place.<\/p>\n

I combined the records below for downloading. I am sorry they are not more organized than this, but you are able to search within the document. There are also .pdf bookmarks differentiating the releases that were combined.<\/p>\n

For reference, the below records were received under FOIA Case USGS 2016-00136.<\/p>\n

Document Archive<\/h3>\n

Mount McKinley Renaming to Denali – Release #1<\/a> [463 Pages, 37MB]<\/p>\n

Mount McKinley Renaming to Denali – Release #2<\/a>\u00a0[289 Pages, 12MB]<\/p>\n

Mount McKinley Renaming to Denali – Release #3-5<\/a> [442 Pages, 21.6MB]<\/p>\n

Mount McKinley Renaming to Denali – Release #6<\/a> [200 Pages, 10.9MB]<\/p>\n

Mount McKinley Renaming to Denali – Release #7<\/a> [137\u00a0 Pages, 9MB]<\/p>\n

Mount McKinley Renaming to Denali – Release #8<\/a> [ZIP File – 3,064 Pages, 243MB] – Note: A few .pdf files in this release were password protected to edit for an unknown reason. USGS had no record of the password, and could not unlock them. They are still viewable, just not editable.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Background The renaming of Mount McKinley to Denali in 2015 was the culmination of a long-standing debate over the name of North America\u2019s tallest mountain. The decision involved decades of discussion, legislative efforts, and ultimately executive action by the U.S. Department of the Interior. Here is a chronological account of the events leading up to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12899,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","transcript_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1684,1683,1682],"class_list":{"0":"post-12898","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-government","8":"tag-barack-obama","9":"tag-denali","10":"tag-mount-mckinley"},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/1-24-2021-6-43-37-AM.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12898"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20297,"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12898\/revisions\/20297"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}