Denali Denali Denali
Come on, it’s a better name.
In a flurry of first-day-in-office activity, Donald Trump has signed an order to rename the 617,800 sq mile Gulf of Mexico and Alaska’s 20,000ft mountain Denali.
The Gulf of Mexico will be renamed the Gulf of America, and Denali, the highest peak in North America, will revert to Mount McKinley – the name it was called before Barack Obama changed it in 2015.
The renaming of the two natural features is to honor “American greatness”, according to a preview of the orders obtained by the New York Post.
Pffff – what’s so great about McKinley?
And anyway Denali is American. Alaska is an American state, thus Alaskans are Americans, thus their name for the mountain is an American name. Plus it means “great one” so there’s your American greatness right there.
Make America Denali Again. But that said, it has something of a Trumpian ring to it; so I dunno
Let the oligarchic whitewashing commence. Can’t have Mexico or the Athabaskan people featuring prominently in Trump’s global goal of Aryan-Patrician domination.
Sure, he knows what men and women are. So do most children. Yay for that, but there are more sinister undertones to his agenda.
I find it, and him, decidedly UnAmerican.
Yeah, but that not-the-dead-White-guy name emphasizes the fact that there were people there (and here*) before Europeans showed up. We don’t want to be reminded of that; we stole this continent fair and square. It’s ours now. Those old names don’t count.
Let’s hope nobody tells him about all the other not-the-dead-White-guy names that are still in use. He might start renaming them all.
Oh, and good luck with renaming the Gulf of Mexico.
*Where I live, London, (Ontario, Canada), got its name from the fact that a British White guy wandering through the region, who thought the forks of the river (which he imaginatively renamed the Thames) might make a good site for the regional capital. Thus “London”. The “capital” idea didn’t pan out, but the name of the river stuck. The First Nations peoples living in the area called the river some variation of “Forked River” or “Antler River”, each in their own language; Deshkan Ziibi in Ojibwe / Anishnaabemowin; Askunessippi in the language of the Neutrals. (Ojibwe also gave us Misi-ziibi, or Mississippi. )
I’ve lived in Alaska for 15 years. Hearing someone say “Mt McKinley” has been a sign that they’re a tourist for that entire time, and I’m positive it will remain that way.
There are plenty of English people who object to the ‘Brecon Beacons’ and ‘Snowdon’ being called by their Welsh names: Bannau Brycheiniog & Yr Wyddfa. They are usually people who object to Welsh names in general.
NB @ #3:
(That I take it, was very much tongue-in-cheek.)
I was born here in Australia, and have lived here all my life, bar the odd trip abroad. I regard it as my homeland, and get homesick very easily when away. But most of my ancestry is Irish, and mostly forced to emigrate because their ancestral lands were stolen by nobilities based in England and Scotland. It was a domino-effect.
The Chinese own China, the French own France and so on, only to the extent they can defend those territories, consideration of which has led me to the following conclusion: If you can’t defend it, you don’t own it. That simple principle extends right down through our vertebrate ancestors to early (territorial) invertebrates, all of which have developed effective means of deterring those who would evict them from whatever and wherever, and maybe eat them in the process..
When Captain Arthur Phillip in 1788 sailed into what is now Sydney Harbour and claimed the whole continent of Australia for the British Crown, it was a meeting between some of the world’s then most technically advanced of peoples, and others (the Aborigines) who through no fault of their own, had not progressed beyond the Stone Age. And, apart from that having been a lay-down misere, it resulted in the meetings of my parents, grandparents and so on, and the conception and birth of me, and/or anyone else for that matter; for the mathematical improbability of which I contend that there are not enough zeroes in all Creation to put between the decimal point and the first numeral.
#5
Yes but that’s because of Welsh pronunciation!
Holms#2
In fact, you can rapidly learn Welsh pronunciation, since it is consistent with the spelling, in a way that English is quite definitely not!
Nope, untrue. Philip led the colony known as New South Wales, and in fact settlement outside a strictly defined area was forbidden. Much of NSW and what is now Queensland and Victoria were off limits.
Victoria was settled by the Hentys et al in defiance of orders from the Colonial Office.
Queensland gradually opened up as new prison sites were required, as was Van Diemens Land.
Here endeth the history lesson.
South Australia was settled under a deed granted to the South Australia Company, and Western Austrlai was simply a mystery that the Dutch could have settled, had they been so inclined.
And the word Australia was not coined until 1814, some 22 years after Philip had returned to England.
A vast number of US place names are indigenous. Around here where I live we have Tukwila, Snohomish, Snoqualmie, Puyallup, Tacoma, Seattle, and on and on. Maybe Trump will rename everything Susan or Joe.
And Oklahoma is packed with indigenous names, but several governors ago felt it imperative to rename the Canadian River the Oklahoma river. Silly, I know.
Musubk: I have friends from Washington DC who insist, even decades later, that the city’s two airports are Dulles and NATIONAL, and if you call the latter anything else you’re a tourist.
@Piglet,
Indeed. I live within walking distance of National; I refuse to use the R-word. (I will at times say DCA if I’m dealing with out-of-towners.)
What a Maroon: if you book a flight to or from there, all the documentation and tracking info will say “DCA” so I think that’s the most helpful name for out-of-towners.
National is a hella pretty airport, too.
Especially since they opened the new security checkpoints in Terminal 2 and so you’re not forced to hang out in gate hell. On the other hand, if you drive there you have to go right past the statue that they erected to the Gipper a few years back.
Vom.
Rev @ #9: Well, that comment of mine resulted in one helluva snowstorm coming in from your direction. Just re one of your trivialities:
(From good old Wikipedia.)
And that’s where the word ‘Australia’ comes from. But maybe you were away from your primary school the day your class had that. Anyway, I’d best leave you to it. You must have one helluva pile in front of you of hairs you want to split.