Seneca Nation calls for reversal of Trump’s ‘Lake America’ executive order

The Seneca Nation, an Indigenous group based in upstate New York, has expressed strong disapproval of President Donald Trump's recent executive order to rename Lake Ontario as "Lake America." This decision, according to the Seneca Nation, disregards a treaty dating back 225 years and demonstrates a "blatant disrespect" for the Indigenous people who originally named the lake.

Seneca Nation President J. Conrad Seneca recently called for the reversal of this order and for the lake's name to be restored. He emphasized in a statement that the President cannot claim ownership of their culture or erase it through such irresponsible political actions.

Trump's order, signed this week, instructed the Interior Department to update the lake's name in the U.S. geographic naming service, as part of his ongoing trade dispute with Canada. The change was to be implemented within 30 days. Seneca Nation officials argue that this renaming infringes upon the 1794 Treaty of Canandaigua, a document signed by President George Washington and the Haudenosaunee confederacy.

This treaty guaranteed perpetual peace and friendship. The Seneca are one of six nations within the Haudenosaunee confederacy, also known as the Iroquois Confederacy.

The name "Lake Ontario" is derived from the Huron Indigenous people's term "oniatarí:io," which translates to "lake of shining waters." In the Seneca language, the lake is known as "sga:nyodai:yoh," meaning "beautiful lake." The Canadian province of Ontario, established in 1867, was named after this very lake.