Global Black Voices: News from around the World
- Donald Trump signed an executive order directing the Interior Department to update the lake’s name in the US geographic naming service.
- Google rolled out Lake America for US users, citing the GNIS and its country-specific naming policy.
- Apple did not immediately comment; its maps still showed Lake Ontario, label hovering above Canada’s water border.
- Canada and the Seneca Nation condemned the move, calling it a treaty violation and disrespectful to Indigenous people.
- This follows last year’s order renaming the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America, which maps firms updated in US.
US President Donald Trump has asked Apple to change the name of Lake Ontario to ‘Lake America’ on its maps app, his administration’s interior chief said on Monday.
This news comes days after Trump signed an executive order over the body of water now in the spotlight amid his escalating trade war with Canada. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told Fox’s Mornings with Maria programme that Trump “reached out to Apple directly”. He said he was confident the Lake America name could be seen on its platform soon.
Apple did not immediately comment in response. Only the Lake Ontario name appeared on its platform as of Monday afternoon, although the label notably hovered above Canada’s water border. Just over the weekend, competitor Google Maps rolled out the new Lake America name for US users, looking at the body of water that sits between the state of New York and Canada’s Ontario province. The company cited the recent order by Trump and its already-established practice of using names assigned by the US Geographic Names Information System, also known as GNIS.
“People using Maps in the US will see ‘Lake America’, those in Canada will continue to see ‘Lake Ontario’, and those outside of the US and Canada will see both names,” Google said in a brief statement on Saturday, reiterating that such updates “follow our long-standing policy for bodies of water with names that vary from country to country”.
Trump declared the new Lake America name last week — marking one of the latest provocations during his trade war with Canada that is now hiking tariffs on both sides of the border. His executive order last Friday directed the Interior Department to update the lake’s name in the US geographic naming service.
The president cannot force Canada to follow along, however. And America’s northern neighbours quickly panned the idea. The leader of the Seneca Nation in upstate New York also said the move violates a more than 225-year-old treaty and shows a “blatant disrespect” for the Indigenous people who gave Lake Ontario its name in the first place.
This isn’t the first time Trump has moved to rename water spanning beyond US borders. Last year, Trump ordered that the Gulf of Mexico be renamed the Gulf of America — and both Apple and Google later updated the name on their maps in the US.
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