Ricey, what's up with Alaska trying to rename Mt. McKinley to Denali?

Fox News Article LINK

Quote :

Mount McKinley has been officially known as Denali in Alaska since the 1970s, but the state's attempts to have the Koyukon Athabascan name adopted at the federal level have long been resisted by Ohio, birthplace of William McKinley, reports Alaska Dispatch News.

A gold prospector named the peak after McKinley in 1896, the year before the Republican became president. To prevent the name change, all Ohio lawmakers need to do is introduce a one-sentence bill in Congress every two years.

Is the Koyukon Athabascan name a native name that is older than 1896? Inquiring minds want to know.

Do you mean were people calling Denali "Denali" before 1896? Yes, and we still do. I literally have never, not once, heard anyone here refer to it as Mt. McKinley. When Russia owned Alaska they referred to Denali as... well, as the Russian translation of "the high one" or "the great one," which is what Denali means in Koyukon. There are different names for Denali in several different native languages, but they all mean "the high one" or "the great one." None of them mean "President McKinley."

The effort for the US to "officially" make the change back to Denali has been ongoing since the 70s. For some reason it's getting some press right now, so maybe it will finally happen. But Alaska changed it back a long time ago, and if you called it Mt. McKinley here, I have no doubt that some young people would have no idea what you were talking about. I really don't know that anyone in Alaska ever actually referred to Denali as McKinley. That seems like a lower 48 deal to me.