Wyandotte Nation speaks out against name change
Executive Order urges new name 'Lake America'
Backlash to an executive order last week renaming the smallest of the Great Lakes reaches far beyond the U.S.–Canada border. Chief Billy Friend of the Wyandotte Nation, headquartered in Wyandotte, Okla., weighed in on President Donald Trump’s recent decision to use the name “Lake America” rather than “Lake Ontario.”
“As Chief of the Wyandotte Nation, I take offense at any effort to change the name of Lake Ontario,” Friend said in a statement Friday. “Ontario comes from the Wendat word Ontari’io, meaning ‘the lake is beautiful’ or ‘the lake is big.’”The Huron-Wendat people who historically used this term have descendants in the Oklahoma-based Wyandotte Nation as well as other bands of related descendants in the Michigan-based Wyandot of Anderdon Nation and the Wyandot Nation of Kansas.
“Then, now and always, it is Lake Ontario,” Friend added.
- 1.Lake Ontario name should be ‘respected and preserved,’ Wyandotte Nation Chief says. Wyandotte Nation, .
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