The Ascent of Denali (Mount McKinley)

The Ascent of Denali (Mount McKinley) - A Narrative of the First Complete Ascent of the Highest

Forefront in this book, because forefront in the authors heart and desire, must stand a plea for the restoration to the greatest mountain in North America of its immemorial native name. If there be any prestige or authority in such matter from the accomplishment of a first complete ascent, if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, the author values it chiefly as it may give weight to this plea. It is now little more than seventeen years ago that a prospector penetrated from the south into the neighborhood of this mountain, guessed its height with remarkable accuracy at twenty thousand feet, and, ignorant of any name that it already bore, placed upon it the name of the Republican candidate for President of the United States at the approaching electionWilliam McKinley. No voice was raised in protest, for the Alaskan Indian is inarticulate and such white men as knew the old name were absorbed in the search for gold. Some years later an officer of the United[Pgviii] States army, upon a reconnoissance survey into the land, passed around the companion peak, and, alike ignorant or careless of any native name, put upon it the name of an Ohio politician, at that time prominent in the councils of the nation, Joseph Foraker. So there they stand upon the maps, side by side, the two greatest peaks of the Alaskan range, Mount McKinley and Mount Foraker. And there they should stand no longer, since, if there be right and reason in these matters, they should not have been placed there at all. To the relatively large Indian population of those wide regions of the interior of Alaska from which the mountains are visible they have always borne Indian names. The natives of the middle Yukon, of the lower three hundred miles of the Tanana and its tributaries, of the upper Kuskokwim have always called these mountains Denali (Den-ahli) and Denalis Wifeeither precisely as here written, or with a dialectical difference in pronunciation so slight as to be negligible. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 26059
Author: Stuck, Hudson
Release Date: Jul 15, 2008
Format: eBook
Language: English