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The Back River, formerly Back's River ( Dogrib: ''Thlewechodyeth'',
Inuktitut Inuktitut (; , syllabics ; from , "person" + , "like", "in the manner of"), also Eastern Canadian Inuktitut, is one of the principal Inuit languages of Canada. It is spoken in all areas north of the tree line, including parts of the provinces o ...
: ''Haningayok'', or Great Fish River), is the 20th longest Canadian river and is located in the
Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories (abbreviated ''NT'' or ''NWT''; french: Territoires du Nord-Ouest, formerly ''North-Western Territory'' and ''North-West Territories'' and namely shortened as ''Northwest Territory'') is a federal territory of Canada. ...
and
Nunavut Nunavut ( , ; iu, ᓄᓇᕗᑦ , ; ) is the largest and northernmost Provinces and territories of Canada#Territories, territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the ''Nunavut Act'' ...
. It rises at an unnamed lake in the North Slave Region of the Northwest Territories and flows more than mostly through the Kivalliq Region, Nunavut, to its mouth at the Arctic Ocean in the
Kitikmeot Region Kitikmeot Region (; Inuktitut: ''Qitirmiut'' ) is an administrative region of Nunavut, Canada. It consists of the southern and eastern parts of Victoria Island with the adjacent part of the mainland as far as the Boothia Peninsula, together ...
of Nunavut.


Course

The river begins at the outflow of an unnamed lake at an elevation of and flows west into Sussex Lake, then north to Muskox Lake, at the border between the Northwest Territories and the Kivalliq Region, Nunavut, where it takes in the left tributary Icy River. It flows over the Muskox Rapids, takes in the left tributary Contwoyto River, and heads east through the Heywood Range. The Back River heads over the Malley Rapids, takes in the left tributary Siorak River and enters the long lake-expansion Lake Beechey in a southeast direction. It heads east, takes in the right tributary Baillie River, left tributary Warren River, right tributary Jervoise River, passes over the Hawk Rapids, takes in the right tributary McKinley River and right tributary Consul River. Between the Baillie and Consul Rivers, the Back River forms the northern border of the Thelon Wildlife Sanctuary. The river turns northeast, takes in the left tributary Bullen River, and reaches Pelly Lake at an elevation of . It flows east through, in immediate succession: Upper Garry Lake, where it takes in the right tributary Morse River; Garry Lake; Lower Garry Lake; Buliard Lake; Upper MacDougall Lake; and Lower MacDougall Lake. The Back River then heads over the Rock Rapids, Sinclair Falls, Escape Rapids, Sandhill Rapids, and Wolf Rapids, and takes in the right tributary Meadowbank River. The river curves around Mount Meadowbank, takes in the right tributary Hermann River and left tributary Montresor River, passes McKay Peak, heads over the Whirlpool Rapids, and reaches Franklin Lake. It continues northeast, takes in the right tributary Mistake River, passes north into Kitikmeot Region, takes in the right tributary Hayes River and reaches its mouth at Cockburn Bay on Chantrey Inlet on the Arctic Ocean.


Watershed

The river has a watershed of and a mean discharge of per second. The river is long to the Muskox Lake outlet, though the river continues further upstream to its source. Like the Coppermine, Hood, Dubawnt or Kazan, which are other large rivers in this part of Canada, it is navigable only by experienced canoeists because of the numerous and challenging 83
rapids Rapids are sections of a river where the river bed has a relatively steep gradient, causing an increase in water velocity and turbulence. Rapids are hydrological features between a ''run'' (a smoothly flowing part of a stream) and a ''cascade''. ...
. The entire river is above the tree line.


History

The Back River is the historic homeland of the ''
Haningayogmiut The Haningayogmiut were a Copper Inuit subgroup located on the Back River (''Haningayok''). According to Arctic explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson Vilhjalmur Stefansson (November 3, 1879 – August 26, 1962) was an Arctic explorer and ethnologist. ...
'' (or ''Hanningajurmiut'') Copper Inuit, also referred to as the ''Ualininmiut'' by their Caribou Inuit northern neighbours, the ''Utkusiksalinmiut''. The ''
Kaernermiut Kaernermiut (or Kainermiut) were a Copper Inuit subgroup. They were located on the Back River, and, they frequented the Thelon River. The Kaernermiut remained inland through all the seasons, coming to the sea only as single families visiting other ...
'' (also ''Kainermiut'') and the southerly ''
Ahiagmiut Ahiagmiut were a geographically defined Copper Inuit subgroup in the northern Canadian territory of Nunavut. They were located near Ogden Bay, on the Queen Maud Gulf, and inland towards Back River, then on towards the Akilinik River. According ...
'' of the Copper Inuit also frequented this area. The Back River and Thelon River were also the northern and northeastern edges of the tribal territories of the enemy Yellowknives and Chipewyan to the south. Its first exploration by Europeans was led by George Back in 1834, as part of an expedition initially mounted to seek the 1829 expedition of Captain John Ross. Back learned of the river from local guides, and throughout his memoir of the expedition he referred to the river as the "Thlew-ee-cho-dezeth", which he translated as "Great Fish River". Later 19th-century explorers habitually referred to the river as "Back's Great Fish River", but gradually this was shortened to "Back River" over time. On abandoning their ships to the ice, the remaining members of Sir John Franklin's 1845 expedition to map a Northwest Passage set out for the Back River but did not survive. In search of them, James Anderson and James Stewart of the Hudson's Bay Company descended the river in 1855 to Chantrey Bay and Montreal Island. After a hiatus of slightly over 100 years, it was again descended in 1962 by two groups. One was a British group of four young men and the other was a group of four young Americans. The British group was led by Robert Cundy, who wrote a book about their descent called ''Beacon Six'', and the Americans were led by Austin Hoyt. The Americans started at the source of the river, Sussex Lake, with two cedar canvas canoes and reached the coast before the British team. Robert Cundy's group started lower down on Beechey Lake and were overtaken by the Americans. The British were paddling three foldup
kayak A kayak is a small, narrow watercraft which is typically propelled by means of a double-bladed paddle. The word kayak originates from the Greenlandic word ''qajaq'' (). The traditional kayak has a covered deck and one or more cockpits, each se ...
s, one of which was destroyed on the expedition. Both groups filmed the trip and the British film, ''Beacon Six'', was shown on TV by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). Over the course of 17 months in 1963-1965, anthropologist Jean Briggs did field research with the Utkusiksalinmiut Inuit living at the opening of Back River and Chantrey Inlet, resulting in her work ''Never in Anger'', as well as helping to compile an
Utkuhiksalik Utkuhiksalik, Utkuhikhalik, Utkuhikhaliq, Utkuhiksalingmiutitut, Utkuhiksalingmiutut,Briggs, J. L. (1970), Never in anger. Portrait of an Eskimo family. Harvard University Press. Utkuhiksalingmiut Inuktitut, Utku,, Gjoa Haven dialect, is a sub-di ...
dictionary.


Natural history

The area around the river is full of wildlife, with many fish in the river, and
caribou Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 subspe ...
, muskoxen, wolves in the area, with occasional sightings of brown bears, wolverines and Arctic hares.
Polar bear The polar bear (''Ursus maritimus'') is a hypercarnivorous bear whose native range lies largely within the Arctic Circle, encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is the largest extant bear specie ...
s are also found as the river nears the Arctic Ocean. The Middle Back River
Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...
, located on the river in the Pelly Lake to Lower Garry Lake segment, is a significant habitat for Canada geese, the
lesser snow goose Lesser, from Eliezer (, "Help/Court of my God"), is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Adolf Lesser (1851–1926), German physician * Aleksander Lesser (1814–1884), Polish painter and art critic * Anton Lesser (born 1952), Bri ...
and other waterfowl. Like other areas in
Northern Canada Northern Canada, colloquially the North or the Territories, is the vast northernmost region of Canada variously defined by geography and politics. Politically, the term refers to the three Provinces_and_territories_of_Canada#Territories, territor ...
, Back River is subject to very cold weather and a persistent Arctic wind that gusts up to gale force.


Modern canoeing

The Back River constitutes a long and difficult voyage,Le Guide complet du canotage, Nicolas Perrault, Broquet inc. 2009, p. 190. taking over a month of hard work by strong and experienced Arctic (duo) canoeists. The Back is much more challenging than either the Kazan River or the Dubawnt River. Many rapids end in dense "rock gardens" rendering portaging often mandatory. Such portages must be conducted on bare rocks and occasionally unstable boulders. The need for portage is generally lower after a set of rapids known as the "Escape Rapids", thereafter very many rapids (but not all) can be run, as the river becomes less rocky and risky. Water level permitting, two further areas of runable rapids are notable: Sandhill rapids generally navigated on the left bank, Wolf rapids on the right. Bear spray is recommended as a protection against polar bears on stretches of the river near the Arctic Ocean. Cooking fuel must also be brought in, as the river is above the tree line, and all vegetation is low-lying and not suitable for use as fuel. The source of the river can be reached by
floatplane A floatplane is a type of seaplane with one or more slender floats mounted under the fuselage to provide buoyancy. By contrast, a flying boat uses its fuselage for buoyancy. Either type of seaplane may also have landing gear suitable for land, ...
from Yellowknife, N.W.T. At the end of the trip, a
bush plane A bush airplane is a general aviation aircraft used to provide both scheduled and unscheduled passenger and flight services to remote, undeveloped areas, such as the Canadian north or bush, Alaskan tundra, the African bush, or savanna, Amazon ra ...
can be called in from Baker Lake in Nunavut for a landing in a prearranged spot in the tundra. One must make sure that a rigid canoe can be attached to the exterior of the bush plane. If not, a foldable canoe should be used instead of a rigid one. The river can also be travelled to its end, where a boat tow can be arranged to the Inuit community of Gjoa Haven, which has commercial air service back to Yellowknife. If planning a canoeing trip on the river, due to the weather, it is generally recommended to have navigated Garry Lake by August 8, the mark of the seasonal change to worse weather. It needs to be noted that being windbound can happen at any time. Due to the proximity to the
Arctic Circle The Arctic Circle is one of the two polar circles, and the most northerly of the five major circles of latitude as shown on maps of Earth. Its southern equivalent is the Antarctic Circle. The Arctic Circle marks the southernmost latitude at w ...
and the associated cold, any capsizing can easily conclude in hypothermia and death. A spray deck-equipped canoe is strongly recommended both for lakes and rapids.


Tributaries

*Hayes River (right) *Mistake River (right) *Hermann River (right) *Meadowbank River (right) *Bullen River (left) *Consul River (right) *McKinley River (right) *Jervoise River (right) *Warren River (left) *Baillie River (right) *Siorak River (left) *Contwoyto River (left) *Icy River (left)


See also

* Back River volcanic complex * List of rivers of Nunavut * List of rivers of the Northwest Territories


References

* *


External links

{{authority control Rivers of Kitikmeot Region Rivers of Kivalliq Region Rivers of the Northwest Territories Geography of North Slave Region