Alaska’s Legislature has rebelled against President Donald Trump’s abrupt removal of Denali as the name of North America’s highest mountain, in an early challenge to the president’s proclivity for putting his stamp on the landscape.
Demonstrating bicameral and bipartisan disapproval of Trump’s resurrection of the name Mount McKinley, the state’s Senate on Friday passed by a 19-0 vote a resolution urging retention of its Alaska Native-derived name.
“Denali stands for something that is cultural, that goes so far back in history that this is just one of those things where we go, ‘Hey guys, listen to what we’re saying back east,'” Republican state Sen. Mike Shower said during floor debate.
Shower, who serves as Senate minority leader, added that the Denali resolution sends a “message back to those in D.C. that seem to be looking to change certain things that ‘that’s fine but let’s pick a reasonable thing that would not upset the people of Alaska.'”
