Wyandotte Nation chief blasts Trump’s Lake Ontario name change
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An area tribal leader isn’t happy with President Trump’s latest executive order.
Wyandotte Nation Chief Billy Friend is criticizing the president’s decision to rename Lake Ontario “Lake America,” saying the move disregards the lake’s Indigenous history.
“As Chief of the Wyandotte Nation, I take offense at any effort to change the name of Lake Ontario,” Friend said in a statement Thursday.
Trump signed an executive order directing the Interior Department to use Lake America as the lake’s official name within the federal government.
Friend said the Ontario name comes from the Wendat language and has direct ties to the ancestors of the modern Wyandotte Nation.
“The name Ontario is more than 400 years old, predating both Canada and the United States,” Friend said. “Names preserve our history, language and heritage.”
The Wyandotte Nation, headquartered in Ottawa County, Oklahoma, has about 7,150 tribal citizens nationwide.
Friend closed his statement by saying, “Then, now and always, it is Lake Ontario.”
