The Nass River is a river in northern

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

, Canada. It flows from the

Coast Mountains The Coast Mountains (french: La chaîne Côtière) are a major mountain range in the Pacific Coast Ranges of western North America, extending from southwestern Yukon through the Alaska Panhandle and virtually all of the Coast of British Columbia ...

southwest to Nass Bay, a sidewater of

Portland Inlet Portland Inlet is an inlet of the Pacific Ocean on the north coast of British Columbia, Canada, approximately north of Prince Rupert. It joins Chatham Sound opposite the Dixon Entrance. It is long and as much as wide. It drains the Portland Can ...

, which connects to the North

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

via the

Dixon Entrance The Dixon Entrance (french: Entrée Dixon) is a strait about long and wide in the Pacific Ocean at the Canada–United States border, between the U.S. state of Alaska and the province of British Columbia in Canada. The Dixon Entrance is part of t ...

. Nass Bay joins Portland Inlet just south of

Observatory Inlet Observatory Inlet is an inlet on the North Coast of British Columbia. It is a northward extension of Portland Inlet, other branches of which include the Portland Canal. The entrance of Observatory Inlet, from Portland Inlet, lies between Ramsden ...

. The English name "Nass" is derived from the

Tlingit The Tlingit ( or ; also spelled Tlinkit) are indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America. Their language is the Tlingit language (natively , pronounced ),

name ''Naas'' which means "intestines" or "guts" in reference to the river's large food capacity in its fish (Naish & Story 1963; Leer, Hitch, & Ritter 2001). Can also be a Tlingit word for "food depot". Former spellings are Naas and Nasse. The

Nisga'a The Nisga’a , often formerly spelled Nishga and spelled in the Nisga'a language as (pronounced ), are an Indigenous people of Canada in British Columbia. They reside in the Nass River valley of northwestern British Columbia. The name is a r ...

name for the river is ''K'alii Aksim Lisims'' "Lisims (river name) Valley". The

Gitxsan Gitxsan (also spelled Gitksan) are an Indigenous people in Canada whose home territory comprises most of the area known as the Skeena Country in English (: means "people of" and : means "the River of Mist"). Gitksan territory encompasses approxim ...

name is ''Git-Txaemsim'' meaning People of Txeemsim (Raven or Trickster); ''Xsitxemsem'' in the dialect of the Gitanyow). ''Lisims'' means "murky" in Nisga'a, referring to the river's silt-laden flow. The last of the river are navigable. The river is a commercially valuable salmon fishery. The basin of the Nass is the location of the first modern-day treaty settlement in British Columbia, between the government of that province and the

Nation. The name Nisga'a is a reduced form of , which is a loan from Tongass

Tlingit The Tlingit ( or ; also spelled Tlinkit) are indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America. Their language is the Tlingit language (natively , pronounced ),

, where it means "people of the Nass River".Rigsby, Bruce "Nisga'a Etymology", ms. University of Queensland.

History

About 220 years ago, as recorded by the oral history of the Nisga'a people, the Nass River was

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use ...

med by a long

lava flow Lava is molten or partially molten rock (magma) that has been expelled from the interior of a terrestrial planet (such as Earth) or a moon onto its surface. Lava may be erupted at a volcano or through a fracture in the crust, on land or und ...

which came from the

Tseax Cone The Tseax Cone ( ), also called the Tseax River Cone or the Aiyansh Volcano, is a young and active cinder cone and adjacent lava flows associated with the Nass Ranges and the Northern Cordilleran Volcanic Province. It is located east of Crater ...

and destroyed the Nisga'a villages and caused the death of at least 2000 Nisga'a people by

volcanic gas Volcanic gases are gases given off by active (or, at times, by dormant) volcanoes. These include gases trapped in cavities (vesicles) in volcanic rocks, dissolved or dissociated gases in magma and lava, or gases emanating from lava, from volcanic ...

and poisonous smoke. The volcano has been active on at least two occasions (220 and 650 years ago) in the last millennium. Because of our knowledge of this previous disaster, modern

monitor Monitor or monitor may refer to: Places * Monitor, Alberta * Monitor, Indiana, town in the United States * Monitor, Kentucky * Monitor, Oregon, unincorporated community in the United States * Monitor, Washington * Monitor, Logan County, West ...

ing techniques should include studies of the gases emitted by the volcanoes and the institution of a warning system to alert people living down slope from the

volcano A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates are ...

es.

Hazards

If the

were to erupt again, there could be a repeat of the poisonous gas disaster that happened to the Nisga'a people 220 years ago. The eruption could also cause

forest fire A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of Combustibility and flammability, combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire ...

s and could potentially dam local rivers such as the Nass River and the Tseax if the volume of the lava flows are large enough. If the lava flows were to again reach the Nass River, it could have disastrous short-term consequences for the important

salmon Salmon () is the common name for several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family (biology), family Salmonidae, which are native to tributary, tributaries of the ...

fisheries Fishery can mean either the enterprise of raising or harvesting fish and other aquatic life; or more commonly, the site where such enterprise takes place ( a.k.a. fishing ground). Commercial fisheries include wild fisheries and fish farms, both ...

on the Nass River system.

Tributaries

This is an incomplete list of tributaries, in upriver order: * Xnukw (Iknouk River) *

Ksi Hlginx Olajide Olayinka Williams "JJ" Olatunji (born 19 June 1993), known professionally as KSI, is an English YouTuber and rapper. He is a co-founder and member of the British YouTube group known as the Sidemen. He is the CEO of Misfits Boxing and ...

(Ishkheenickh River) *

Ksi Sii Aks The Ksi Sii Aks (formerly Tseax River) is a tributary of the Nass River in northwestern British Columbia, Canada. It is most notable as the namesake of Tseax Cone, a volcano within its basin that was responsible for an eruption in the 17th century ...

(Tseax River) *

Ksi Gwinhat'al Olajide Olayinka Williams "JJ" Olatunji (born 19 June 1993), known professionally as KSI, is an English YouTuber and rapper. He is a co-founder and member of the British YouTube group known as the Sidemen. He is the CEO of Misfits Boxing and ...

(Kwinatahl River) * Tchitin River * Kinskuch River * Cranberry River ** Kiteen River * White River ** Flat River * Meziadin River,

Meziadin Lake Meziadin Lake Provincial Park is a provincial park in British Columbia, Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the ...

* Bell-Irving River * Kwinageese River * Taylor River ** West Taylor River

References

{{Authority control Rivers of the North Coast of British Columbia Nass Country Rivers of the Boundary Ranges Cassiar Land District Range 5 Coast Land District Rivers of British Columbia

History

Hazards

Tributaries

See also

References