Denali’s not just a river in Egypt
It’s a mountain in Alaska that’s been known as McKinley for about 100 years.
Obama has decided to rename it with its native American name. This has made Alaskans happy and Ohioans furious, and although I don’t have a dog in that race, Obama’s action perturbs me because it’s just another executive overreach of his (albeit a relatively minor one), meddling in a controversy that should rightly be resolved by Congress.
Next up, the city in which he started his political career, Shikaakwa, meaning “wild leek” or “place of the skunk.”
When you think about it, the US actually has a lot of official place names that originate in native American words, or approximations of them.
Maybe it’s time to popularize and bring back Lenapehoking:
It stretched from modern-day Delaware to western Connecticut and Long Island and included parts of eastern Pennsylvania, all of present day New Jersey, and the southern counties of New York State, including Rockland, Orange, Westchester, and Putnam Counties, Nassau County, and the five boroughs of New York City. Along with New York City, Newark, Trenton, Princeton, Philadelphia, Wilmington, Delaware, Atlantic City, and numerous other urban and suburban areas are in Lenapehoking today, as are the Jersey Shore, Pine Barrens, the Sourland Mountains, the Delaware Valley, and perhaps some parts of the Catskills, Poconos, and the Pennsylvania Dutch Country.
There is no universal agreement among scholars regarding the autonym of Lenape territory. Some believe the area the Lenape inhabited was called Scheyischbi, or ‘the place bordering the ocean’. According to some people, the Lenape called this territory “Lenapehoking” (lÉ™nape haki-nk), meaning ‘in the land of the Lenape’. This assertion has gained widespread acceptance and is found widely in recent literature on the Lenape, including in the websites of purported Lenape people. Ray Whritenour, a philologist, says that the term does not appear in any sources from the 18th century, but is a modern name coined by Nora Thompson Dean (Touching Leaves Woman) in 1984, in order to provide the archaeologist/author, Herbert C. Kraft, with a convenient term for the area once inhabited by ancestors of the Lenape people.
And I think we can all agree that Webster Lake in Massachusetts should be abolished to make room—lots and lots and lots of room—for Lake Chaubunagungamaugg, or better yet, Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg:
The lake’s name comes from Nipmuc, an Algonquian language, and is said to mean, “Fishing Place at the Boundaries — Neutral Meeting Grounds”. This is different from the humorous translation, “You fish on your side, I’ll fish on my side, and nobody fish in the middle”, thought to have been invented by Laurence J. Daly, editor of The Webster Times.
Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg (/ËŒleɪk tʃəˈɡɒɡəɡɒɡ ËŒmé¦nˈtʃɔËɡəɡɒɡ tʃəˌbÊŒnəˈɡʌŋɡəmÉ”ËÉ¡/), a 45-letter alternative name for this body of fresh water, is often cited as the longest place name in the United States and one of the longest in the world. It is not spelled correctly on the sign bordering Connecticut.
Today, “Webster Lake” may be the name most used, but some (including many residents of Webster), take pride in reeling off the longer versions.
This lake has several alternative names. Lake Chaubunagungamaugg is the name of the lake as recognized by the U.S. Department of the Interior, however, many area residents, as well as the official website of the town of Webster, consider the longer version correct.
Algonquian-speaking peoples had several different names for the lake as recorded on old maps and historical records. However, all of these were similar in part and had almost the same translation.
The poet Walt Whitman loved American place names, and in his poem “Starting from Paumanok” (a reference to the native American name for Huntington, Long Island, the town of his birth) he wrote:
On my way a moment I pause;
Here for you! and here for America!
Still the Present I raise aloft””Still the Future of The States I harbinge, glad and sublime;
And for the Past, I pronounce what the air holds of the red aborigines.The red aborigines!
Leaving natural breaths, sounds of rain and winds, calls as of birds and animals in the woods, syllabled to us for names;
Okonee, Koosa, Ottawa, Monongahela, Sauk, Natchez, Chattahoochee, Kaqueta, Oronoco,
Wabash, Miami, Saginaw, Chippewa, Oshkosh, Walla-Walla;
Leaving such to The States, they melt, they depart, charging the water and the land with names.O expanding and swift! O henceforth,
Elements, breeds, adjustments, turbulent, quick, and audacious;
A world primal again””Vistas of glory, incessant and branching;
A new race, dominating previous ones, and grander far””with new contests,
New politics, new literatures and religions, new inventions and arts.These! my voice announcing””I will sleep no more, but arise;
You oceans that have been calm within me! how I feel you, fathomless, stirring, preparing unprecedented waves and storms.
Certain sections of that remind me of none other than Obama—the use of the word “audacious,” for example, and much of those last two stanzas and particularly that last line. “Unprecedented waves and storms,” indeed.
The poem is a fragment of Leaves of Grass, a book of poetry that you may recall featured somewhat prominently in the relationship between Obama’s Democratic predecessor Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. Of course, you may only remember the cigar. But me? I choose to remember the poetry.
More lawlessness.
The President just can’t repeal a statute and enact a new statute by himself.
Minor item, but a very serious breach of the constitution and his oath of office. But when has that every stopped this guy?
Look on the bright side: If Obama can rename it to Denali, then the next, Republican president can rename it back to McKinley. Goose meet gander.
Cornhead:
Ah, but he can do just that—if no one has the power and/or the will to stop him. It turns out that Obama can do whatever he wants.
This is one of those things liberals do to fill good about themselves but does not involve any real improvement. The feel good about themselves is the only part the liberals care about. Admittedly, this probably better than most the things liberals do since it will probably not harm anything.
Obama, of course, is overstepping his bounds, but he does that all the time but this comparably minor to some. Cough Iran Deal Cough.
Wooly Bully,
Actually, I’m surprised he didn’t compromise and call it “Obama.”
Obama’s removing McKinley’s name from the peak, along with the recent trend of purging all confederate people and history from the public square, has inspired me to re-read Milan Kundera’s “The Book of Laughter and Forgetting.”
Time for him to rename the White House “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”
“Actually, I’m surprised he didn’t compromise and call it “Obama.””
He’s saving it up for when we start renaming assholes.
>>He’s saving it up for when we start renaming assholes.
He should rename the Hoover Dam to Obama Dam so we can refer to that dam, Obama.
Nyuck, nyuck!
Small people do small things.
Flashback to when someone decided to rename Cape Canaverval, “Cape Kennedy”. Locals pushed back hard, so now it is The Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral.
We really don’t have to put up with some of this foolishness.
I wish we had a troll-worthy Republican house member who would introduce a bill to re-name the City of Detroit “Obama”. They have many of the same characteristics–run by Democrats, corrupt, high taxes, job destroying, union-loving, decaying, etc.
Hydronyms are much more likely than names of other geographic features to persevere from the language of previous inhabitants into names used by the new owners. Mountains get renamed a lot more quickly and more often.
McKinley was a Republican and a dead-white guy, so it is okay to remove his name from the map.
The Ohio guy seems OK with it.
Elections have consequences ….
I blame …
Yes, annoying because it’s just more more example of executive overreach. How many more to come before Jan. 2017?
But I must say I am surprised that many modern day Ohioans care all that much about this. Is there really outrage in OH?
If Congress named the mountain, shouldn’t Congress be the body to change it? Don’t we have a procedure for officially changing place names? Could Obama change the name of any mountain or river?
Mr. Frank:
As I said in an earlier comment, Obama can do anything he wants if no one can stop him. Congress, SCOTUS—our entire system of laws, and the Constitution, are either respected or must be enforced and backed up in some way.
The mountain is a symbolic although trivial issue, but the process is not trivial. It is the same process that Corker-Menendez tried to underline, which is that Congress created the Iran sanctions by law, and Congress should have the power to continue or rescind them. But if Congress doesn’t have enough votes to exercise that power (and some way of enforcing it), and Obama says no, what is the remedy? One might say impeachment/conviction, but the same 2/3 votes are needed to convict and they’re not there.
It becomes more and more clear why Obama took the position he did early in his presidency on Honduras.
Well yes, I suppose Obama can rename anything he wants by executive order. After all, he could redefine marriage as between two people not necessarily of opposite sexes. But there is probably a limit. You notice he didn’t rename Mt McKinley to something like Denali River? Like King Canute, he recognizes there are limits.
F:
Actually, I’m saying something more extreme than that.
I’m not saying he can rename anything he wants by executive order, although that is true. I’m saying he can do anything he wants, or at least order or proclaim anything he wants unless Congress or SCOTUS decides to stop him, or unless some other body defies his orders.
Just as an example, if everyone kept calling the mountain in Alaska “McKinley” rather than “Denali,” it would defy his orders and they would be as though they didn’t happen. The same with many things he has ordered through executive action—they depend on the cooperation of others (agencies, the court system, the citizenry, the military, the border police, etc.). The only real remedy is impeachment and conviction, and the votes aren’t there to do that.
Where is the point at which his actions would be outrageous enough to change that? So far I don’t see it, although I assume it exists, somewhere. But it’s far far down the line. He doesn’t push it with the renaming because he doesn’t care about that, except as a small nod to native Americans and to Alaskans. But for important things, he’s willing to go far to defy the wishes of the American people, as with Obamacare and the Iran deal, both highly unpopular. So far it’s working for him.
I guess Clinton wasn’t a man from Nantucket.
This is a big middle finger to the white establishment.. Anyone who has been to Alaska, or more specifically to Mt. McKinley National Park, knows that the two names McKinley and Denali have been used interchangeably by the residents and especially the Park Service for a long time.
Someone, I don’t know who, must have been trying to get the name changed officially. It’s the type of cheap grandstanding move that Obama would seize on as a way to give the finger to the white establishment. His membership in Reverend Wright’s black liberation theology church is now out in the open. It’s who he is – a blatant racist.
Might makes right in America. People deluded themselves into thinking otherwise, but that was back when the government used their might to give people rights. Now the gov uses might to take away those rights.
It was the state of Alaska that requested the name change — way back in 1975:
Forgot to give the link to that post: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/08/31/obama-to-rename-mt-mckinley-to-denali-during-alaska-trip-that-focuses-on/
Ohio Congressman Bob Gibbs introduced a bill in the House in January of this year — H.R. 437 — to provide for the retention of the name of Mount McKinley. Looks as if it got lost in committee; from govtrack.us:
“This bill was assigned to a congressional committee on January 21, 2015, which will consider it before possibly sending it on to the House or Senate as a whole.
Prognosis: 6% chance of being enacted”
Ann, thanks for bringing all the history of the name change to the fore. I have been to Alaska many times and have friends there. All I ever noticed was that they used the names interchangeably. I was never made aware there was a dispute.
I spent a few days in the park in 1985 and again in 1994 without noticing that the park’s name had been changed because the two names were like synonyms in my mind.
One of my high school classmates is a descendant of Dr. Frederick Cook, who claimed to have made the first ascent in 1906. Dr. Cook’s claim was later discredited by Bradford Washburn in 1951.
Cook was an arctic explorer and adventurer who also claimed to have been the first to the North Pole in 1908, which was later disputed by Robert Peary, who claimed to have reached the Pole in 1909.
Cook was an interesting man who traveled and explored widely, but seemed overcome by his ambition to be “first.” My classmate says his family (now all deceased) stood by Dr. Cook’s claims, but he is agnostic on the issues and willing to accept the “conventional thinking.”
For details go here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Cook
Anyway, there’s no lack of disputes when it comes to the naming, climbing, and history of Denali. Your comments brought all that to my mind.
Sorry for going OT.
Yep, couldn’t help but notice the anagram -slash- pun resident in the title of this post:
“Denali’s not just a river in Egypt”
[ An anagram of “Denali” is, after all, . . . “Denial”! ]
Chicago was also known at one time as “Skunk’s Misery”, and the original name of Saint Paul, MN, was Pig’s Eye. Wouldn’t it have been wonderful, if instead of sending the heavy cruisers CHICAGO and SAINT PAUL to the Coronation Naval Revue for Queen Elizabeth II, we would have sent USS SKUNK’S MISERY and USS PIG’S EYE?
USS SKUNK’S MISERY
Compares poorly to names of Japanese vessels (in WW2).
The whole thing was stray voltage to detract from the cop killer in Houston being arraigned.
Once you realize how this administration uses stray voltage — say something outrageous or even flat our false (like the 70% wages lie) even though it might hurt you a liiiiitle bit, because it sucks all the coverage away from the thing that REALLY hurts you.
In this case, it’s the fact that Obama’s racial divisiveness and his black vs white stance has now incited braindead thugs to start political, racial murder.
Let’s talk about what to name a mountain in the middle of nowhere instead, shall we?