Kakabeka Falls
The Kakabeka Falls are around 40 m high waterfalls in the Kaministiquia River in the Canadian province of Ontario . This makes them the highest waterfalls in the north of the province. They form the core of the Kakabeka Falls Provincial Park , which is around 32 km west of Thunder Bay , but only covers 5 km². The park was created in 1955.
The name comes from the language of the Anishinabe (gakaabikaa) and means "thundering water", according to the Ojibway dictionary "falling over a cliff". Kakabeka plays a big role in the legends of Anishinabe. The Indian Greenmantle, daughter of chief Ogama Eagle, sacrificed herself for her tribe at the age of 17. When Sioux attacked the Anishinabe from the south, it fell into their hands. The Sioux wanted to attempt a surprise attack across the river, and they forced Greenmantle to lead them. This led the canoe fleet to the Kakabeka Falls, so that the attackers fell to their deaths. A little later, the remaining Sioux were finally defeated in the battle on the Welcome Islands.
At this point the river digs through rock that is up to 1.6 billion years old. It was used for trade early on, so that a 1349 m long portage was already in place for the canoes that the first European explorers found in the 17th century to bypass the waterfall. Pierre-Jacques Payen de Noyan was the first to go up the river in 1688, which the French had known since 1681 at the latest. The river with its 13 portages and a gradient of almost 200 m by 56 km was a very difficult route, but it connected the region around Lake Superior with western Canada. In 1870, the "Red River Expedition", with which 1200 soldiers with the help of several hundred voyageurs and around 1000 boats were to be deployed against the Métis , passed through the portage at the Kakabeka Falls.
Web links
Remarks
- ↑ Ojibwe-English and English-Ojibwe online dictionary
- ↑ Native American Legends. Princess of the Mist
Coordinates: 48 ° 24 '10 " N , 89 ° 37' 50" W.