Denali–Mount McKinley naming dispute

The name of the highest mountain in North America became a subject of dispute in 1975, when the Alaska Legislature asked the U.S. federal government to officially change its name from "Mount McKinley" to "Denali". The mountain had been unofficially named Mount McKinley in 1896 by a gold prospector, and officially by the federal government in 1917 to commemorate William McKinley, who was President of the United States from 1897 until his assassination in 1901.

The name Denali is based on the Koyukon name of the mountain, Deenaalee ('the high one'). The Koyukon are a people of Alaskan Athabaskans settling in the area north of the mountain.

Alaska in 1975 requested that the mountain be officially recognized as Denali, as it was still the common name used in the state. Attempts by the Alaskan state government to have Mount McKinley's name changed by the federal government were blocked by members of the congressional delegation from Ohio, the home state of the mountain's presidential namesake. In August 2015, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell announced that the name would officially be changed in all federal documents. While on an Alaskan visit in the first week of September 2015, President Barack Obama announced the renaming of the mountain.