When the sun sails and falls beyond the horizon, the snow-capped peak of Mount Denali turns the color of the salmon that fill the rivers in the spring. The summit overlooks the vast Alaskan frontier, and for miles, all the eye can see are forests and lakes. For the indigenous people of Alaska, stories about the mountain have been passed down generation by generation. The name Denali comes from the Koyukon language, meaning “The High One.” According to Athabaskan legend, Denali was once a terrible wave that a great warrior turned to stone. For centuries, the indigenous people of Alaska have revered the mountain and the land in its shadow.
As a landscape photographer, capturing Denali in winter at sunset is a dream of mine, and as an amateur hiker, the mountain remains a daunting challenge I hope to one day work up to. Measured from base to summit, Denali is actually taller than Mount Everest in Nepal and is considered, within the climbing community, one of the most technically challenging mountains in the world to summit. With record-breaking winds of 300 miles per hour recorded in 1967, and a shattering low temperature of -75ºF recorded in 2003, Denali is a force to be reckoned with. Since it was first summited in 1913 by four experienced mountaineers, over 125 people have died climbing Mount Denali.
The mountain was first named Mount McKinley in 1896 by a gold prospector, in support of Ohio governor William McKinley, who was running for president and would later that year go on to win the election. In 1917, President Woodrow Wilson signed a law officially naming the mountain in honor of William McKinley, who had been assassinated in 1901. While it’s common for mountains to be named after historical figures, it should be noted that President McKinley never visited Alaska, nor did he have any connection with the Athabaskan people. In 2015, President Obama signed an executive order reverting the mountain’s name back to the traditional Denali. Last week, the Department of the Interior changed the name of North America’s highest peak from Mount Denali to the previously abandoned Mount McKinley. The name change comes after President Trump promised to rename the mountain while on the campaign trail.
The genocide the United States perpetrated against the indigenous people of the land it conquered has, for centuries, been swept under the rug. It’s ironic. The same country that pushed back the tide of fascism in the Second World War and relegated the Berlin Wall to the pages of history at the end of the Cold War has its own wretched history of racial and ethnic discrimination and violence. For a country founded on and so dedicated to the principles of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, these same values have been continually denied to indigenous people throughout the American saga.
We often refer to the expansion west as “settlement,” as if the land were uninhabited, rather than land that for centuries was the home of Native American tribes with their own deep histories and cultures. Words are powerful, and the words we use say something about who we are and what we value. What this most recent choice of words demonstrates is that we value that history and culture very little. Names, just like words, are powerful. They carry a weight that shouldn’t be thrown around lightly. Plastering the name of a white man on a peak known to indigenous people for centuries as Denali whitewashes the cultural heritage of the Athabaskan people. This most recent insult is just one in a long train of abuse that this country has slurred against the land’s indigenous people.
This revisionist history is tragically nothing new to the Native American people throughout the story of this country. Painting the mountain a different color is a blow to the hope that we have been moving closer to reconciliation with a people we have so deeply wronged. Helping to heal the wounds takes time and a lot of work, but it starts with respect. Respect for the people who for centuries have called this land home, and respect for the cultural heritage that they have carried with them for centuries.
As the government and the media begin to whitewash Alaska’s deep cultural history, don’t let them win this battle of words, because history has shown us time and time again that it never ends with just words. The words we use are powerful, and by continuing to refer to our tallest mountain as Denali, we recognize and honor the heritage of the Athabaskan people and push back against an ever-encroaching revisionist history of our country. Yesterday, today, and tomorrow, it will always be Denali.