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

The leader of the Seneca Nation in upstate New York has strongly criticized President Donald Trump's decision to rename Lake Ontario as "Lake America." Nation President J. Conrad Seneca has called for the reversal of the order, emphasizing that it violates a treaty over 225 years old and demonstrates "blatant disrespect" for the Indigenous people who originally named the lake.

Trump's order, part of his ongoing trade dispute with Canada, directs the Interior Department to update the lake's name in the U.S. geographic naming system, with the change to take effect in 30 days. Seneca argues that renaming Lake Ontario disregards the 1794 Treaty of Canandaigua, which the U.S. signed with the Haudenosaunee confederacy, promising perpetual peace and friendship.

The Seneca Nation, one of the six nations comprising the Iroquois Confederacy, maintains that the lake's name in the traditional Seneca language is "sga:nyodai:yoh," meaning "beautiful lake." Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has also rejected the renaming, highlighting the lake's Indigenous origins and noting that the name predates both the Canadian Confederation and the U.S. Declaration of Independence.