This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Barack Obama has said he will be changing the name of the highest mountain in North America from Mount McKinley to Denali.

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He announced that he will be returning the mountain’s traditional Alaskan native name on the eve of a presidential visit to Alaska.

Denali is an Athabascan word meaning “the high one”. The name has long been a sore spot for Alaskans, who have informally called the 6,200m high mountain Denali for years.

The mountain was more recently named after a former US president, William McKinley. There have been several efforts by Alaskan politicians to change it back to Denali but politicians from McKinley’s home state of Ohio have always opposed the move. Obama is citing the Interior Department’s authority to make the change.

The decision has brought praise from Alaska’s governor, Bill Walker, a Republican turned independent, and Republican elected officials, who more typically are critical of an administration they see as hostile to their state’s oil and gas interests.

“I’d like to thank the president for working with us to achieve this significant change to show honour, respect and gratitude to the Athabascan people of Alaska,” said Senator Lisa Murkowski, a Republican who led the fight for the name change in Congress.

Obama will meet with a group of Alaskan native leaders on Monday in Anchorage, as well as with Walker and Murkowski.

Craig Fleener, a Gwich’in Athabascan who is an adviser to Walker, called Denali “a hallmark of Alaskan identity” and said the name change was rich in significance.

The first person to reach the summit of the mountain in 1913 was a Koyukon Athabascan, Walter Harper, and a member of his expedition, a Gwich’in Athabascan, John Fredson, went on to become a leader in the fight for native rights in the state, Fleener said.