Today Donald Trump posted on “Truth Social” that the Cleveland baseball team and the Washington football team must revert to their former names (Indians and Redskins). He wrote “Our great Indian people … their heritage and prestige is systematically being taken away from them.”
This from the same person, who, on Day 2 as president, got rid of the Native American name of our tallest peak — Denali — and changed it back to Mount McKinley. Where was his concern for the heritage and prestige of our great Indian people then?
The name Denali came from the Athabascan Native people of northern Alaska, who named it thousands of years ago. It means “the high one.” Appropriate. Then in 1896, an out-of-work stock-broker turned prospector decided to name it Mount McKinley. The name stuck among most white settlers, who probably did not care what the Native Americans had named it, long before the first white person saw Alaska. In fact, President McKinley, after whom this prospector named the mountain, cared little for or about Alaska, and never visited Alaska in his life.
Sounds like our president just likes the names Indians and Redskins better than Guardians and Commanders. If he really cared about the prestige of the Native Americans, he never would have changed the true name of the mountain, Denali.
Gordon Johnston, West Valley City
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