Posted on 01/26/2025 6:59:42 AM PST by Eli Kopter
President Trump’s decision to rename Mt. Denali back to its former name of Mt. McKinley has touched off the usual outrage from politicians, media types and activists whose only knowledge of the country’s Pre-Columbian tribal population comes from Kevin Costner movies and shows.
Mt. Denali, they insist, was the original ‘indigenous’ name for Mt. McKinley. But the National Park Service notes that, “no fewer than nine Native groups… used unique names for the mountain. There are five Athabascan languages surrounding the park, each with its own oral place name.”
And Mt. Denali is not even the right tribal name.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who co-sponsored the bill to change Mt. McKinley’s name to Mt. Denali, attacked Trump’s decision because, in her words, Mt. McKinley “must continue to be known by the rightful name bestowed by Alaska’s Koyukon Athabascans, who have stewarded the land since time immemorial.”
Nearly everything the senator wrote in that brief tweet is wrong. The Athabascans don’t call themselves that, they use the name ‘Dena’. The term was made up by a Democrat official.
(Excerpt) Read more at frontpagemag.com ...
My grandson told me he is against going back to the Redskins name. He’s in line to inherit all my Redskins stuff which I’ve been ‘collecting’ for most of my life. He says it would be much more valuable if the Commanders moniker prevailed.
It’s unclear if Sheldon, the man who gave us the name Mt. Denali, ever understood that all the “expressive” Indian names were just different ways of saying “big mountain”.
A really good article about why trusting politicians to be linguists is a bad idea. Worth the time to click over.
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I could care less about Native American names. But personally, speaking as someone of Swedish ancestry, if find the name “Vikings” to be culturally insensitive.
The term was invented by speakers of Old English as an intentional slur against Norwegian and Danish seafarers, most of whom were perfectly peaceable merchants and traders, most of the time.
Also...return the name of the fighting Sioux of the University North Dakota
Your grandson is wrong.
Change the name back to the Washington Redskins.
Smart grandson
Talk about first world problems…Maybe Trump should dictate that every street in America named Main Street should be renamed MAGA Avenue. That seems like a good use of time and clout.
BTTT
I have heard Denali referred to as “My Big Brother”...“Shiięęd Yázhí in Navajo, which Tribe the Koyukon Athabascans are part of.
Denali is a good name for a pro wrestler.
Trump should rename the Tetons in honor of Lizard Cheney and the Hispanic vote.
Tatas.
Denali sounds like something in Africa.
The Park Service doesn't allow "Native Americans" to steward the land the way they once did. They don't allow the burn frequency tribal people once exercised. They don't allow hunting there. People used to control wolf numbers by raiding dens and eating the puppies. Now without management 60% of wolf deaths are due to cannibalism: starving wolves eating other wolves while other game numbers are in the toilet. Without herbivory and burning, the vegetation becomes increasingly woody. The summer landscape then lacks forage for wildlife.
Great plan, Murkowski, you racist pig.
“The term was invented by speakers of Old English as an intentional slur against Norwegian and Danish seafarers, most of whom were perfectly peaceable merchants and traders, most of the time.”
A study of what “Norse” words became “loan words” in English has found what you say to be very true. The majority of the words are related to activities of farming, crops, animal husbandry, trades related to farming and fishing, not weaponry, fighting, plundering and pillaging.
“Vikings” was likely an English pejorative “stereotype”, erroneous, for all people from Norway, Denmark and the rest of Scandinavia. Majorities (every where) have a bad habit of using the worst examples among any minority as a descriptor of that entire group. Throughout history, every where, it is never true.
REVISE your will?
***The Athabascans don’t call themselves that, they use the name ‘Dena’.***
So do the Navajos and Apache tribes in the South West. “Dine”
Decades ago I read a book by a park ranger from around 90 years ago and how he was trying to keep the name “Denali” alive after the mountain had been renamed McKinley. He managed to get the highway name changed to Denali.
I can live with both names.
Athabascans are Navajo, but our illustrious government would not research enough to know that. The name change was a DEI fix by Obama, just like the pressure to change all Indian names. If you ask the Indians, there were few who objected to the sports names or the McKinley name. Trump is attempting to un-DEI America because it is discrimination.
Hmmmp. They probably called it "Heap big rock".
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