Seneca Nation leader calls Trump's Lake America renaming 'unpresidential,' demands reversal
A day after President Donald Trump signed an executive order renaming Lake Ontario "Lake America" amid a trade war with Canada, the leader of Seneca Nation of Indians asked him to reverse it.
Calling his order "unpresidential," president J. Conrad Seneca on Friday wrote: "The President cannot assert ownership over our culture or erase it through irresponsible political action. His order should be rescinded, and the name Lake Ontario should be left as it is, reflective of the Seneca people, other Haudenosaunee nations and all Indigenous people surrounding the lake."
Seneca explained that the lake derived its name from Indigenous roots.
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"In our traditional Seneca language, its name is sga:nyodai:yoh, meaning ‘beautiful lake,’" he wrote in a message shared in the nation’s newsletter. "Long before the United States existed, and before settlers brought the English language to our lands, our Seneca and Haudenosaunee ancestors traveled Lake Ontario and surrounding waterways for many reasons, including diplomacy among our nations. Now, we are seeing the exact opposite of diplomacy."
He added that to the people of Seneca Nation, Lake America is not a "political pawn" but rather land that Indigenous people have lived on for thousands of years.
"The action that President Trump is taking is starkly un-presidential and demeaning to his office and his standing as the leader of the free world," Seneca argued. "His blatant disrespect toward the Seneca people, other Haudenosaunee nations, and all Indigenous people is unacceptable."
He noted that first President George Washington signed a treaty with several nations, including the Seneca, in 1794 "promising to live in peace and friendship with one another."
"The United States also promised our people the free use and enjoyment of our lands forever," Seneca said. "President Trump’s aggression toward our culture with his Executive Order violates that peace, friendship and commitments of the Canandaigua treaty."
"This is the latest in a long history of willful attempts to disregard the United States’ commitments to the Seneca and other Haudenosaunee nations," he continued. "President Trump needs to be reminded of those commitments."
He added that Article 6 of the U.S. Constitution "clearly states that treaties are the ‘supreme Law of the Land,’ and need to always be honored as such."
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Seneca called on all Native groups and federal, state and local representatives — "regardless of political party" — to stand against the name change.
"We will always call Lake Ontario by the name derived from the language of our ancestors — the name that, like the strength and influence of the Seneca people, will live on forever, long after the intrusive political tirades of individual men," he said.
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Trump announced the name change on Thursday.
"The Lake of America was something I've been thinking about for a long time, actually," he told reporters while signing the Executive Order in the Oval Office. "As you know, we took something called the Gulf of Mexico — we changed it — and now it's very routinely the Gulf of America," Trump said in the Oval Office."
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The president said he had directed Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and the department to update the Geographic Names Information System to reflect the name change.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney condemned the name change on X, writing, "The name is more than 400 years old, predating both the Confederation of Canada and the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America. We know that America is changing. 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."
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The move to rename the lake, which sits on the U.S.-Canada border, came amid a breakdown in trade between both nations, with Trump accusing Ottawa of unfair trade practices.
Trump floated renaming the lake hours before Carney's announcement of reciprocal tariffs on U.S. imports.
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The U.S. imposed new 50% tariffs on Canadian goods such as wine, furniture and dairy products, while Carney said U.S. trade demands proved Washington wanted to "destroy our major industries," including autos, steel and aluminum, FOX Business previously reported.
"Canada has been ripping us off for a long time on trade," Trump said Thursday. "Very sadly, even the military, you know, we defend Canada for nothing. We don't get anything. They don't pay us to defend Canada."
Trump also jokingly floated renaming the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
"So, if you think about it, we have a gulf and we have a lake," he said. "Now, all we need is an ocean. So maybe we'll have to change the name of the Atlantic and or the Pacific. Maybe we'll change them both."
Trump previously used geographic names to make political statements, ordering the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
Trump’s executive order has been criticized by several governors, including Democrats New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers and Republican Vermont Gov. Phil Scott.
"New York won’t be calling it that," Hochul wrote on X.
Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Michigan, announced that she plans to introduce House legislation that would nullify the change.
"Donald Trump can sign all the executive orders he wants, but it will always be Lake Ontario," she wrote in a press release. "Canada is not our enemy. It is our neighbor, our ally, and one of Michigan’s most important economic partners. It is a friendship that no stroke of a pen can erase."
Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for comment.
Fox News Digital's Louis Casiano contributed to this report.