The audacity! Obama changes the name of Mt. Mckinley to Mt. Denali! Past is the past people!

[Salnax]

On one hand, "McKinley" is a cooler name for a mountain than Denali. Sure, Denali is what natives called it, but it literally translates to "tall."

On the other hand, President William McKinley, for whom the mountain was named, has virtually nothing to do with Alaska. Alaska was acquired much earlier, during the Johnson administration, and wouldn't be an organized territory until years later, during the Taft years. If I had to name the mountain after any president, it'd be Eisenhower, since he was president during the time statehood was passed.

Maybe I'd be a touch sad if McKinley was a great and legendary president. After all, people name things after Washingtoon and Lincoln even when they're not related. Problem was, he was decent, but not phenomenal. He deserves credit for being a fairly forceful leader. His foreign policy was aggressive and opportunist, leading to the war with Spain, aquisition of their territories, encouraging international trade, and the annexation of Hawaii. However, these victories were often morally questionable. For example, he did not respect the Philippines's wish for self-rule, leading to a bloody war where American forces burnt villages to the ground and rounded people up in camps. Really, McKinley can be seen as a starting point for a lot of the nastier American policies of the past 120 years.

So let's call it Denali.