As every American schoolchild knows, the highest mountain in North America is Alaska's Mount McKinley (elevation: 20,320 ft., a mere 8,708 ft. lower than the Himalayas' Mount Everest). But centuries before paleface cartographers gave the peak that name, Alaskan Indians, Aleuts and Eskimos called it by another: Denali, or "the Great One" in the Athabascan Indian dialect. Now native Alaskans are lobbying hard to restore the original Indian name. The state legislature has adopted a resolution to rechristen the mountain Denali, and both Governor Jay Hammond and Senator Mike Gravel are campaigning to persuade the U.S. Interior Department to make the...
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