Senator introduces bill to rename Mount McKinley

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski has introduced legislation to change the name of North America's tallest peak from Mount McKinley to Mount Denali.

It is the latest move in a decades-long fight over the name of the mountain, widely referred to as Denali by Alaskans.

For years, members of Ohio's congressional delegation have filed measures or included language in bills to retain the name Mount McKinley; Ohio is the birthplace of President William McKinley. One such measure is currently pending, introduced by U.S. Reps. Tim Ryan and Betty Sutton.

Murkowski has also introduced legislation to rename the Talkeetna Ranger Station in Alaska for Walter Harper, credited as the first person to reach the peak's summit.

According to a National Park Service history, McKinley, the name bestowed on the peak by William Dickey in 1896, stuck because of his "'discovery' account" in the New York Sun in January 1897. This was in spite of the fact that Alaska Natives, Russians and American visitors had offered names of their own for the mountain over the years.

The name Denali is an Athabascan, or Alaska Native tribe, word meaning "the high one."

A move to change the name took hold in the 1970s, championed by then-Alaska Gov. Jay Hammond. The state Legislature, in 1975, passed a resolution urging the Interior secretary to direct the U.S. Board on Geographic Names to rename Mount McKinley as Mount Denali and Mount McKinley National Park to Denali National Park, according to the history...