by Circle of Blue, Circle of Blue
September 3, 2026
Great Lakes researchers warn that changing Lake Ontario’s name is a costly waste of time that complicates longstanding collaboration to manage and protect an iconic water body named by indigenous people before either the United States or Canada were founded.
The August 27 executive order signed by President Trump directs the federal government to change Lake Ontario’s name to Lake America across its maps, documents, and communications. The order comes amid trade disputes with the U.S.’ northern neighbor, which Trump slammed for “ripping us off.” Trump’s order says the new name, Lake America, intends to recognize the lake as a key American economic resource that has shaped the nation’s history.
Tribal leaders, though, say Trump’s effort to change the name erases their ties to the region after a history of removal from the area.
The name Ontario predates both Canada and the United States. It comes from Iroquoian words meaning “big”, “beautiful,” “shining” or “sparkling” lake, depending on the translation. While the exact origin of the name is disputed, many experts say Ontario comes from a Wendat word Ontari’io, while others say it comes from languages spoken by the Haudenosaunee or Mohawk indigenous groups that also spoke languages in the Iroquoian family.
It’s not the first time Trump has renamed a body of water. Last year, Trump ordered the Gulf of Mexico to be renamed to the Gulf of America. One poll conducted by Marquette University Law School showed 71 percent of Americans disapproved of the renaming.
Trump’s order renaming the Gulf of Mexico also raised questions about who would have to follow it. In one especially fraught example, Trump attempted to curtail the Associated Press’ access to the White House because the outlet continued to use the term “Gulf of Mexico” after his order changing its name. A court reinstated the AP’s access on First Amendment grounds.
The reach of the Lake America order may not be as widespread as Trump anticipates. Political leaders heading entities that border the lake — New York State and Canada — have so far refused to adopt the name. Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney and New York’s Democratic New York Governor Kathy Hochul both said they would continue to call the lake Lake Ontario.
Trump is not deterred. At the press conference to sign the Lake Ontario executive order, the president teased renaming an ocean next. “We have a gulf and we have a lake. Now, all we need is an ocean,” he said.
The Lake Ontario executive order seeks to affirm the U.S. commitment to Great Lakes protection. But researchers warn protection efforts would be ineffective without cross-border collaboration, which the executive order ignores. They also say it distracts from more important issues facing the lake.
Mike Shriberg, professor and director of the University of Michigan Water Center, whose work focuses on Great Lakes water policy and institutions, said the name change complicates century-long collaboration between Great Lakes governments, advocates, and scientists that has been a model around the world for how to manage a shared resource.
Numerous cross-border governing bodies help protect and govern the lakes. The 1909 Boundary Waters Treaty set up the International Joint Commission (IJC) to prevent and resolve disputes over the shared water. The Great Lakes Compact between eight U.S. states and two Canadian provinces details how the governments will protect and manage the basin’s water withdrawals.
The Trump effort complicates cross-border science because consistent terminology is important to maintaining long-term datasets, for example, President of the International Association for Great Lakes Research (IAGLR) Noel Urban says in a statement. IAGLR is an organization that promotes freshwater ecosystem research and protection.
Jérôme Marty, executive director of IAGLR tells Circle of Blue that the order reinforces for Canadians that the U.S. is an unreliable research partner.
The Trump administration has already pulled funding for federal programs that could have had significant effects on environmental challenges in Lake Ontario, like the deployment of buoys to detect blue-green toxic algae blooms, he says. Changing the name of the lake adds to that “confusion” and “chaos,” and “we don’t need that at this particular moment when the environment is changing so fast.”
The executive order requires the Secretary of the Interior, in coordination with the Board on Geographic Names, to rename the lake. That includes updating the Geographic Names Information System, the official federal standard for geographic names in the U.S., to reflect the new name. It also directs the Board on Geographic Names providing guidance to make sure all federal government references to Lake Ontario, such as agency maps, contracts and communications, are changed to Lake America.
Shriberg notes, though, that it is not yet clear whether the order indicates a larger disruption to the decades-old efforts to co-govern the Great Lakes. “If this is a fork in the road, that concerns me greatly,” says Shriberg. On the other hand, if it’s just “political messaging,” that’s “of far less concern.”
If the former, that could have broad consequences across the Great Lakes and other border waters. Marty argues that the entire concept of cross-border status clashes with Trump’s ideology. The Great Lakes “have no border,” Marty says. But Trump’s ethos is focused on borders, he continues, with policies focused on reinforcing borders such as his infamous effort to build a Wall between Mexico and the U.S. or comments about making Canada the 51st state.
Indigenous Roots
Wyandotte Chief Billy Friend told Circle of Blue that Trump’s executive order is “an utter sign of disrespect” for Trump to believe he can change the name of the lake that dates back over 400 years, “just with the stroke of a pen.” The Wyandotte are descendants of the same Huron-Wendat people who named the lake Ontario.
Friend, who heads the federally recognized Native American Tribe headquartered in Oklahoma, said the name Ontario ties his tribe to the northern region from which they were removed. The tribe originated in the Georgian Bay region of Ontario, eventually descending into Lake Ontario, and then Michigan, then Ohio, then Kansas, and then Oklahoma, Friend explained. “One of the aftermath [effects] of removal is, once you’re gone, you’re forgotten,” he says. The name Lake Ontario tethers the Wyandotte to that region.
Friend also expressed disappointment that the government did not consult with the Wyandotte Nation. On Friday, the tribe sent a letter to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum reprimanding the government for ignoring the lake name’s indigenous history and reminding him that the Constitution recognizes Tribal Nations as sovereign entities.
Another tribe – the Seneca Nation, which spans western New York state – also urged the President to reverse course. The Seneca Nation President J. Conrad Seneca said in a statement that the name change violated the terms of the 1794 Treaty of Canandaigua negotiated between the United States and the Six Nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy.
Daniel Rüik, a history professor at the University of Ottawa who researches settler-colonialism told Circle of Blue that Trump’s renaming continues the tradition of colonial explorers, geographers and surveyors who named geographic features after themselves, their wives, their friends, and their pets.
“The hubris in this is quite striking,” Rüik said.
Practical Effects
Shriberg estimates that the cost of agencies and scientists in the U.S. changing the name across governing bodies, publications, and more could be millions of dollars and numerous work hours for staff.
For example, will the joint commission’s International Lake Ontario-St. Lawrence River Board have to spend time and resources renaming themselves? asks Daniel Macfarlane, a Western Michigan University professor who recently wrote a book on Lake Ontario. In response to an inquiry from Circle of Blue, the IJC said it does not comment on “political matters or issues of domestic policy pertaining to either the United States or Canada.”
The federal order cannot require private companies, advocacy groups, news outlets, and others to make the change. Still, some key private players will do so voluntarily.
The popular online maps platform Google Maps, for example, explained in a blog post that U.S. users will now see “Lake America,” because the U.S. Geographic Names Information System has formally changed the name in the U.S. Canadian users will see the lake labeled “Lake Ontario,” following its “long-standing policy” for water bodies with names that are different in different countries. Outside the U.S., users will see “Lake Ontario (Lake America),” Google Maps says. Apple Maps and Waze still label the lake Lake Ontario. Mapquest has publicly stated it will not change the lake’s name.
What’s In a Name?
For Gregary Ford, the Lake Ontario Waterkeeper, “the name itself holds a promise of clean, shining, beautiful waters.” He says that no matter what people call the lake, he’ll continue to work with scientists and advocates on both sides of the international border to work toward that promise. Ford also says he’ll continue to call the lake Lake Ontario.
The President’s renaming reflects his America First politics. His order claims the lake as American. “This is a lake that has most of its volume in the United States, the deepest parts of the lake sit in United States territory, so this will reflect that this is an American lake,” he said during the White House event at which he signed the renaming executive order.
The executive order emphasizes the lake’s role to the U.S., boasting its key role in early American trade routes to it hosting key military posts. The executive order further boasts the U.S.’ efforts to protect the lake, including investing nearly $4 billion in protecting the ecosystem.
But Macfarlane, the Western Michigan University professor and dual citizen of the U.S. and Canada, argues the lake is more Canadian. It’s a key part of the Canadian economy, Macfarlane notes, in large part because Toronto, Canada’s largest city, sits on its northern shore. The portion of New York touching Lake Ontario on the U.S. side is sparsely populated by comparison. Plus, Canada claims more surface area on Lake Ontario, even while the U.S. side holds the most volume.
Plus, Macfarlane says both governments have fallen short of their promises to the lake. He says one positive to this renaming order is the spotlight it is shining on Lake Ontario. The lake is arguably the most polluted of the Great Lakes, facing a deluge of challenges affecting the ecosystem, from microplastics and PFAS to water temperature increases due to climate change, he says. He argues the lake is worse off than it was when the U.S. and Canada signed the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement in the 1970s.
More than ever, those challenges call for collaboration. Shriberg says, “You can’t protect just half the water — the water doesn’t know international boundaries.”
Lead image: Lake Ontario. Credit: Swim Drink Fish Canada
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