The highest peak of North America is the focal point of Jeff King's life.
The four-time winner of the Iditarod Trail 1 609 sledge race leads his breeding and mushing tourism industry, just 12 kilometers from the Denali National Park and Preserve entrance, and the 6190-meter top is large when he trains his dogs on nearby trails.
King and many others who live in the shadow of the mountain say that most Alaska will never cease to call the peak Denali, his native name Alaska, despite the executive order of President Donald Trump, that the order Name Return to Mount McKinley – Identifier inspired by President William McKinley, who was with Ohio and never set his foot in Alaska.
For many Trump's suggestions living near Denali was special.
“I don't know a single person who likes this idea, and we're very loud,” said King. “Denali respects native inhabitants who have been here and around Denali for tens of thousands of years.”
The mountain was named after McKinley, when in 1896 a seeker came out of the desert in Alaska, and the first message he heard was that the Republican was nominated for the president.
The name was quickly questioned, but the maps have already been distributed with the name of the mountain.
At that time, there was no recognition of the name Denali or “The High One”, awarded at the top on the internal Alaska by members of the Athabascan tribe who had lived in the region for centuries.
The name McKinley was stuck until 2015, when the administration of President Barack Obama changed her to Denali as a symbolic gesture for Alaska's natives on the eve of his visit to Alaska to emphasize climate change.
Trump said he gave the order to “restore the name of the great president, William McKinley, to Mount McKinley, where he should be and where he should. President McKinley made our country very rich thanks to tariffs and talent. “
This area lies only in the United States, and Trump, as the president, has the right to change federal geographical names in the country.
In Ohio, Trump's movement attracted praise.
“I was very excited, seeing that President Trump performed this executive order,” said former US representative Bob Gibbs, R-Ohio, on Thursday on Thursday The Associated Press. McKinley “was a great president,” said Gibbs. “It was the right thing.”
This is not how Alaska see.
“ Shuffle note ''
Trump injected a “shocking note” for Alaska, Steve Haycox, Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Alaska Anchorage, wrote in Anchorage Daily News.
“Historical analysis confirms that William McKinley is an improper public figure for Alaskan to commemorate,” he said.
McKinley was the president from 1897, until the murder in 1901 he was an imperial colonist who supervised the expansion of the American Empire with the occupation of Kuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, Philippines and Hawaii, pressed by business and Christian missionaries who want Haycox. that to convert the native population.
“Trump to strive for the name of Denali for a colonialist and white elite McKinley offends all Alaskanów, especially for the native inhabitants of Alaska, and should be heavily rejected,” said Haycox.
John Wayne Howe, who unsuccessfully ran for the American house representing the Alaskan Independence party last year, which maintains that Alaskan should vote for a independent nation, said that he is tired of “people changing the names of things, dot”.
He is also not in favor of naming anything for people, because “people we consider to be an absolutely perfect change in time, and it simply leads to confusion.”
Howe said he prefers Denali because he knows McKinley's story and this is the name most preferred by Alaskanów.
Last week, two resolutions were introduced into the legislator of Alaska to keep the name Denali.
Republican Governor Mike Dunleavy, Trump's ally, who praised another order by the president, whose goal is to download the development of resources in this state, said that he did not have the opportunity to talk to Trump on this subject, but he hoped to talk about Washington in Washington next month What Denali means for Alaskan, Americans and “our native people.”
But Sarah Palin, a former republican governor, who is also a supporter of Trump, said that the name of McKinley should never be removed.
The name of the Code of Secret Service of Palina was Denali in 2008, when she was the candidate for President GOP John McCain, in which he lost to Obama and Joe Biden.
But in an interview with Al Arabiya News last week, Palin said that she did not understand why the name of the mountain had to be changed to start.
“It was always Mount McKinley,” said Palin, who did not answer the message from the Associated Press. “Nobody begged to change the name in this peak. Just put aside as it was, more common sense. “
The US Senators, the Republicans of Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, supported the name Denali. Representative of American Nick Begich, the first Republican, bypassed the debate.
“I focus on creating jobs, possibilities in Alaska,” said Politico Bega. “And what we call the mountain in Alaska is very disturbing to me.”
Alaska Native Heritage Center, the National Culture Center in Anchorage, supports the preservation of the names of local places.
“Restoring them and honoring them is recognized by a deep, millennial connection of the indigenous population, which maintains these lands and is a step towards respect and reconciliation,” said the President of the Center in a statement, Emily Edenshaw.
The bizarre community of Alaska in Talkeetna, about 225 kilometers south of the park and where the cat was once a mayor, it is a jumping point of climbers before entering the top. The historical community, which is said to be the inspiration for the television series “Northern Exposure” from the 90s, is also a popular tourist stop.
Joe Mcaneney from Talkeetna worked for two years as a summer rafting cable before he moved to Alaska full -time in 2012. It is now a pilot for a taxi company, climbing and tourists upstairs in a small aircraft equipped with skis to land a basic camp, located on a Kahiltna glacier at 2194 meters above sea level.
He knows that when the tourist season comes, he will have to answer questions about what he thinks that Trump changes its name. He knows what his answer will be.
“There has always been Denali and it will always be like that,” he said.
The executive order may initiate a change of name, but compatibility is another problem.
“The only people who will follow this are probably people who would still call McKinley anyway,” said Mcaneney.
There is a long feature of Alaska ignoring what the rest of the world thinks, and usually expresses: “We don't care how they do it outside.” Outside, which is always capitalized, refers to any place where Alaska is not.
“I think that there will always be Denali unofficially and officially in Alaska,” said Mcaneney. “I don't think the president can change it.”
For King, a decorated Iditarod Musher and fans' favorite, Trump's decision had an arrogance breeze.
“I am surprised that he does not want to call this Trump mountain,” he said.