President Obama on Monday changed the name of Alaska’s Mount McKinley- named for President William McKinley, who was from Ohio- to Denali. (Becky Bohrer, Associated Press file)
Re: “White House says Mount McKinley to be renamed Denali,” Aug. 31 news brief.
President Obama’s official recognition of Denali as the legitimate name for Mount McKinley in Alaska will not likely sit well with native Ohioans, but it is a fitting tribute to the native people of all the Americas.
Here in Colorado we have an equal opportunity. Mount Evans, our 12th-tallest 14er, is named after the governor of the Colorado Territory who resigned in disgrace as the sordid details of the Sand Creek Massacre came to light. A bit of “truth and reconciliation” could occur if Mount Evans were designated instead as Black Kettle Mountain after the Cheyenne chief whose village and people were savagely destroyed.
Robert Porath, Boulder
This letter was published in the Sept. 2 edition.
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