John Sackett: The Alaska Native Legislator Who Helped Bring "Denali" Back

Alaska State Senator John Sackett in the early 1970s

Alaska Blue Book, Alaska Department of Education, Division of State Libraries, 1973

By Erik Johnson, Denali Historian

In summer 2015, Denali made international news when the tallest mountain in North America had its name officially changed from Mount McKinley to Denali. There were articles written at the time that traced the decades-long fight to change the name.

One man who helped influence the name change but seldom receives much recognition was John Sackett.Sackett was born in 1944 at a spring camp on the Huslia River, a tributary of the Koyukuk, in Interior Alaska. He attended St. Mark's mission in Nenana for a year and went to Sheldon Jackson High School in Sitka, where he was class valedictorian.

In 1966, at age 21, Sackett became the youngest person ever elected to the Alaska legislature. At the time, Sackett was already President of the Tanana Chiefs Conference (1966-68), and in 1972, he became the first president of Doyon Limited. He graduated from the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) in 1972 with a degree in accounting. Sackett served in the Alaska legislature as a representative for four years, and then served another 14 years as senator, becoming an important advocate of Native land claims and rural Alaska issues.

In early February 1975, State Senator Sackett introduced Senate Joint Resolution Number 6, which recommended that the Secretary of the Interior direct the U.S. Board of Geographic Names (BGN) to change the Mount McKinley name to Denali. The resolution was approved by the Senate on February 18th and passed the House on March 7th.

The resolution read:

BE IT RESOLVED by the Alaska State Legislature that the Secretary of the Interior is respectfully requested to direct the United States Board on Geographic Names to officially designate Mt. McKinley as Mt. Denali; and be it
FURTHER RESOLVED that Mt. McKinley National Park be renamed McKinley National Park.[1]

Alaska Governor Jay Hammond supported the resolution, and the renaming issue moved to the national level, where the BGN began efforts to measure public opinion on the resolution. A decades-long political battle ensued, and the official name-change effort was blocked by Ohio Congressman Ralph Regula.[2]

In 2015, Secretary of Interior Sally Jewell took executive action on the naming dispute, which for 40 years had remained unresolved. She cited a 1947 law that grants the Secretary power when "the Board does not act within a reasonable time." Jewell finished what Sackett had started.The long-time Alaska Native leader and Alaska legislator passed away in early March 2021 at the age of 76. He is remembered for his public service legacy, but his efforts to restore an Athabascan name to the mountain should also be remembered by history.[3]

_{[1] The Alaska Legislature amended the resolution to delete "Mt." before "Denali."}

_{[2] Regula represented President William McKinley's home district in Ohio.}

_{[3] Sackett was awarded an honorary doctorate by UAF in 2013, and Sackett Hall at the UAF Kuskokwim Campus in Bethel was named for him.}