|
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 United States government in 1917 to commemorate William McKinley, the assassinated U.S. president. The name ''Denali'' is a based on the Koyukon name of the mountain, ''Deenaalee'' translated as "the high one".〔〔〕 The Koyukon are a people of Alaskan Athabaskans settling in the area north of the mountain.〔James Kari of the Alaska Native Language Center writes in ''Shem Pete's Alaska,'' the "name 'Denali' is based upon the Koyukon place name as used by the people north of the mountain." Kari explains that "the name 'Denali' does not mean 'The Great One,' as is commonly cited, but is instead based upon this verb theme meaning 'high' or 'tall.'" 〕 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 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.〔 ==Historic names== Numerous indigenous peoples of the area had their own names for this prominent peak. The local Koyukon Athabaskan name for the mountain, the name used by the indigenous Americans with access to the flanks of the mountain (living in the Yukon, Tanana and Kuskokwim basins), is ''Dinale'' or ''Denali'' or ). To the South the Dena'ina people in the Susitna River valley used the name ''Dghelay Ka'a'' (anglicized as ''Doleika'' or ''Traleika'' in Traleika Glacier), meaning "the big mountain".〔 The historical first European sighting of Denali took place on May 6, 1794, when George Vancouver was surveying the Knik Arm of the Cook Inlet and mentioned "distant stupendous mountains" in his journal. However, he uncharacteristically left the mountain unnamed. The mountain is first named on a map by Ferdinand von Wrangel in 1839; the names Tschigmit and ''Tenada'' correspond to the locations of Mount Foraker and Denali, respectively. Von Wrangel had been chief administrator of the Russian settlements in North America from 1829–1835.〔 During the Russian ownership of Alaska, the common name for the mountain was ''Bolshaya Gora'' (Большая Гора, "big mountain" in Russian). The first English name applied to the peak was ''Densmore's Mountain'' or ''Densmore's Peak'', for the gold prospector Frank Densmore, who in 1889 had fervently praised the mountain's majesty; however, the name persevered only locally and informally.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Denali–Mount McKinley naming dispute」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|