U.S. President Barack Obama delivers remarks after meeting with local youth and law enforcement officials
IN PHOTO: U.S. President Barack Obama delivers remarks after meeting with local youth and law enforcement officials at the Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center in Camden, New Jersey May 18, 2015. Obama is making the visit to New Jersey Monday to push efforts to encourage trust-building between police and the communities they serve. Reuters/Jonathan Ernst

On his three-day visit to Alaska to discuss climate change in Arctic, American President Barrack Obama officially renamed the highest peak of America Mt. McKinley as Denali on Sunday.

The tallest mountain of North America, standing at 20,237 feet, has returned to its original name Denali, which was given by the Athabaskan, natives of Alaska. The name McKinley was given to the highest peak to honour the then-Republican presidential nominee William McKinley by an explorer who discovered it in 1898.

McKinley was born in Niles, Ohio and died in Canton, but has never visited Alaska. He became the President in 1890 but the name for the mountain came into force only in 1971 when then-President Woodrow Wilson signed the proposal. Mr Obama put an end to the decades-old argument by renaming the mountain to its original name.

The White House asked the announcement to be made on Monday, though the order was signed on Friday. The name change “recognises the sacred status of Denali to generations of Alaska Natives,” the White House said.

In 1975, Alaska requested the United States Board on Geographic Name to rename the mountain back to Denali. But the request was blocked by an Ohio congressman, who resided in the district where McKinley belonged to. Mr Obama announced the change of name through his Interior Secretary, Sally Jewell. “With our own sense of revenue for this place, we are officially renaming the mountain Denali in recognition of the traditions of Alaska Natives and the strong support of the people of Alaska,” she said.

Republican Senator for Alaska, Lisa Murkowsk, who has been pushing the name change for years, said that the people in Alaska are honoured to get their mountain’s original name back. She has criticised Mr Obama’s energy policies earlier.

President Obama is the first U.S. president to visit Arctic, Alaska. He intended to talk about Glacier Conference and discuss climate change with Alaskan Natives group.

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