Chief of the Wyandotte Nation, Billy Friend, took offense to Trump's decision to rename Lake Ontario to Lake America. The tribal nation is now headquartered in northeast Oklahoma, but has history in the Great Lakes region.
Trump's executive order claims to restore names that honor American greatness, but Friend said it is another act of forced removal and erasure. He said his ancestors, who spoke Wendat, gave Ontario its name, Ontari'io, which means "the lake is big" or 'the lake is beautiful."
"It's not about politics; it's about history," Friend said in a phone interview. "It's about respecting a tribal name and the people whose language gave that name to the lake."
The lake is along the U.S.-Canada border between the Canadian province of Ontario and New York state.
The word Ontario predates both countries and some Indigenous language experts are still debating which sub-language the word Ontario originated from.
Regardless, Friend said removing it without tribal consultation is disrespectful. It also diminishes some of the work the tribal nation has done in the area to preserve and share its ancestral past.
An Indigenous Canadian leader with a shared history in the area, Wendat Nation Grand Chief Pierre Picard, has echoed similar remarks in comments to Canadian news outlets.
"I've said many times history is not for us to like or dislike," Friend said. "It's for us to learn from, and it's definitely not for us to erase or destroy. And the history of Lake Ontario definitely tells a story."
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has also weighed in on the issue, highlighting not only the Indigenous significance of the name, but other qualms with the administration.
"We know that America is changing," Carney said. "Their trading relationships, their foreign policies, their national monuments, their hydronyms. Canadians also know that naming reality means calling it Lake Ontario – then, now and always."
In an effort to reverse the decision and get answers about why the decision was made without tribal consultation, Friend said he plans to send a letter to Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum.
"If I had a message for the president, it would be, 'Lake Ontario has a tribal name,'" Friend said. "And we should be trying to preserve that history, not replacing it."
Trump has said nothing about the Indigenous roots of the lake's name, instead only referencing Ontario's provincial connection to Canada. The president, though, has hinted to reporters he likely won't stop with renaming the Great Lake.
"So, if you think about it, we have a gulf and we have a lake. Now, all we need is an ocean," Trump said.