The Snake Indian River is a large
tributary
A tributary, or an ''affluent'', is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream (''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 into which they ...
of the
Athabasca River
The Athabasca River (French: ''Rivière Athabasca'') in Alberta, Canada, 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 protected in nationa ...
, exiting entirely within
Jasper National Park
Jasper National Park, in Alberta, Canada, is the largest national park within Alberta's Rocky Mountains, spanning . It was established as Jasper Forest Park in 1907, renamed as a national park in 1930, and declared a UNESCO world heritage site ...
. The Snake Indian forms at
Snake Indian Pass, south of
Monte Christo Mountain and
Snake Indian Mountain, north of
Calumet Peak. The
river
A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...
travels in a general northwest direction before turning sharply south. The river plummets over the massive
Snake Indian Falls before joining the
Athabasca River
The Athabasca River (French: ''Rivière Athabasca'') in Alberta, Canada, 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 protected in nationa ...
downstream of
Jasper Lake, near the east gate of
Jasper National Park
Jasper National Park, in Alberta, Canada, is the largest national park within Alberta's Rocky Mountains, spanning . It was established as Jasper Forest Park in 1907, renamed as a national park in 1930, and declared a UNESCO world heritage site ...
.
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 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