<P> The name of the highest mountain in North America became a subject of dispute in 1975, when the Alaska Legislature asked the U.S. federal government to officially change its name from Mount McKinley to Denali . The mountain had been unofficially named Mount McKinley in 1896 by a gold prospector, and officially by the Federal government of the United States in 1917 to commemorate William McKinley, who was President of the United States from 1897 until his assassination in 1901 . </P> <P> The name Denali is based on the Koyukon name of the mountain, Deenaalee ("the high one"). The Koyukon are a people of Alaskan Athabaskans settling in the area north of the mountain . </P>

Who was the mountain mount mckinley officially named for