The Snake Indian River is a large
tributary
A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainage ...
of the
Athabasca River
The Athabasca River (French: ''Rivière Athabasca'') is a river in Alberta, Canada, which originates at the Columbia Icefield in Jasper National Park and flows more than before emptying into Lake Athabasca. Much of the land along its banks is pro ...
, exiting entirely within
Jasper National Park
Jasper National Park is a national park in Alberta, Canada. It is the largest national park within Alberta's Rocky Mountains spanning . It was established as a national park in 1930 and declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984. Its locatio ...
. The Snake Indian forms at
Snake Indian Pass, south of
Monte Christo Mountain and
Snake Indian Mountain, north of
Calumet Peak
Calumet may refer to:
Places United States
*Calumet Region, in northern Illinois and Indiana
**Calumet River
** Calumet Trail, Indiana
** Calumet (East Chicago)
*Calumet, Colorado
* Calumet, Iowa
*Calumet, Michigan
* Calumet, Minnesota
* Calume ...
. The
river
A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...
travels in a general northwest direction before turning sharply south. The river plummets over the massive
Snake Indian Falls
Snakes are elongated, limbless, carnivorous
A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant whose food and energy requirements derive f ...
before joining the
Athabasca River
The Athabasca River (French: ''Rivière Athabasca'') is a river in Alberta, Canada, which originates at the Columbia Icefield in Jasper National Park and flows more than before emptying into Lake Athabasca. Much of the land along its banks is pro ...
downstream of
Jasper Lake, near the east gate of
Jasper National Park
Jasper National Park is a national park in Alberta, Canada. It is the largest national park within Alberta's Rocky Mountains spanning . It was established as a national park in 1930 and declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984. Its locatio ...
.
The Snake Indian River, along with Snake Indian Mountain and Snake Indian Pass, were named after a small tribe of
Indians, the ''Snakes'', which resided around
Jasper House
Jasper House National Historic Site, in Jasper National Park, Alberta, is the site of a trading post on the Athabasca River that functioned in two different locations from 1813 to 1884 as a major staging and supply post for travel through the Can ...
in the 19th century. In Indigenous cultures, the term ''snake'' is a generic pejorative used to describe other tribes, regardless of their actual ancestry, hence the many locations in Alberta where a number of different tribes lived, all of whom, although unrelated, were called 'Snakes'. The Snakes who lived just north of Jasper were massacred by a band of
Assiniboines
The Assiniboine or Assiniboin people ( when singular, Assiniboines / Assiniboins when plural; Ojibwe: ''Asiniibwaan'', "stone Sioux"; also in plural Assiniboine or Assiniboin), also known as the Hohe and known by the endonym Nakota (or Nakoda ...
at a peace feast between the two tribes.
[Karamitsanis, Aphrodite (1991). ''Place Names of Alberta, Volume 1''. Calgary: University of Calgary Press, pg. 228]
Tributaries
*Blue Creek
*Deer Creek
*Willow Creek
See also
*
List of Alberta rivers
Alberta's rivers flow towards three different bodies of water, the Arctic Ocean, the Hudson Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. Alberta is located immediately east of the continental divide, so no rivers from Alberta reach the Pacific Ocean.
List of riv ...
References
Rivers of Alberta
{{Alberta-river-stub