“U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan (both R-AK) today introduced the Don Young Recognition Act, a bill to honor the legacy of the late Don Young, Congressman for All Alaska. The legislation designates one of the most active volcanoes in the Aleutian Islands, currently known as Mount Cerberus, as Mount Young. In addition, the bill recognizes Congressman Young’s lifelong contributions to Alaska by designating the Federal office building in Fairbanks as the Don Young Federal Office Building and the Job Corps Center located in Palmer as the Don Young Alaska Job Corps Center,” says a Thursday statement on Murkowski’s Senate.gov website.
Mount Cerberus was a smart pick considering there are unlikely to be that many worshippers of the vicious mythological three-headed dog that guards the gates of Hell who would feel like their culture is being squashed. It’s a safe bet Murkowski and Sullivan’s staffs double and triple-checked if there was any historic indigenous Aleutian name for the mountain and came up empty. Dead white men have been losing ground in the number of places and topographic features in Alaska named for them in recent years, so why not let the guy whose death gave way to the first ever Native Alaskan member of Congress’s election (and a Dem) have this one.