Peace River
The Peace River ( English for " Peace River "; French Rivière de la Paix ) is a 1,521 km long river in the Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Alberta . He is a British Columbia Heritage River .
With its source river, the Finlay River , it is 1923 km long and flows into the Slave River shortly after it left Lake Athabasca .
The former riverside Fort Fork of the North West Company was the starting point for the first crossing of North America north of Mexico west to the Pacific Ocean by Sir Alexander MacKenzie's expedition in 1793 .
River course
The river that the river system of the Mackenzie River heard entfließt the British Columbia in the Rocky Mountains located Williston Lake , a reservoir, the largest tributaries of the Finlay River and the Parsnip River are. From the W. A. C. Bennett Dam , which is located on its eastern arm, the Peace River flows northeast through Alberta, taking in the waters of the Smoky River and Wabasca River , which flows into it , to the Slave River .
The catchment area of the Peace River covers 302,500 km².
Different names for a river
The river itself had for many northern tribes such as the Daneẕaa ( Dunneza - 'The real (prototypical) people' - "the true, prototypical people", formerly called Beaver ), South Slavey ( Deh Cho - "People on the great river, i.e. on the Mackenzie River "), Dogrib ( Done , Dene -" People "or Done Do -" Dene People "), Chipewyan ( Denesuline, Denésoliné, Dënesųłiné -" People of the barren, barren land ") and Sekani ( Tse'khene -" People in the stony mountains ”).
As historian Merrily Aubrey points out, the importance of the river among the various indigenous tribes is testified by the various names given to the river by them.
The Daneẕaa who lived upstream called the river, which is so vital for them, because of its size, simply Ungeega , which literally means “Big River”.
Another source reports that the South Slavey called the river Chin-chago - which supposedly means beautiful river (see: William Ogilvie). Today a tributary of the Hay River is called the Chinchaga River .
The English name in use today as Peace River is derived from Peace Point at the confluence with the Slave River, at which a peace treaty was concluded in 1781 between the warring Daneẕaa and the Cree , which was advancing further and further into their area, using the river as the border between sealed the two tribes.
The Hudson's Bay Post Journal of 1822, however, still names the river Rivière de Broche , which is derived from the French word for pike - brochet - an important food fish and the immediate interest of the English and French in this as a source of food for their ventures in the Take advantage of fur trade .
Dam project
To the west of Fort St. John is the Site C Dam project , which was developed by the regional electricity company BC Hydro . The dam should be completed by 2024, cost 6.4 billion euros, cover 107 kilometers of the river and 53 square kilometers of area. Local people, 360 Canadian scientists and organizations are resisting the dam project. The Indian tribes West Moberly and Prophet River First Nations are suing the Canadian government because of an agreement from 1899 that guaranteed the indigenous people the traditional way of life of fishing, trapping and hunting. After the election to the provincial parliament in 2016, the new provincial government arranged for this project to be re-examined.
Places on the river
- Fort St. John , British Columbia
- Peace River , Alberta
- Fort Vermilion , Alberta
Web links
- Discharge measurements (R-ArcticNET)
- Peace River ( English, French ) In: The Canadian Encyclopedia .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Article Peace River in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (BSE) , 3rd edition 1969–1978 (Russian)
- ↑ a b Rivers. The Atlas of Canada
- ↑ Peace River at the Taylor gauge - hydrographic data from R-ArcticNET
- ↑ Peace River at the Peace River gauge - hydrographic data from R-ArcticNET
- ^ Peace River at Fort Vermilion gauge - hydrographic data from R-ArcticNET
- ↑ Peace River at the Peace Point gauge - hydrographic data from R-ArcticNET
- ↑ The Cree called Amiskiwiyiniw or Amisk Wiyiniwak and Dakelh Tsat'en, Tsattine or Tza Tinne means both - "Beaver people", so they were used to in English often called Beaver - "Beaver" means
- ↑ the militarily superior advancing to the northwest Cree called them derogatory awokanak or awonak - " slaves ", which in English as slave (slave) has been adopted today, the various groups are therefore usually as Slavey referred
- ↑ Dogrib is an English translation of their own designation as Tłįchǫ Done , Tłįchǫ got'ı̨ı̨̀ or Thlingchadinne - 'Dog-Flank People', 'Dogrib People' - "Dog Rib People", which referred to their fabulous descent from a supernatural dog-human .
- ↑ The name Chipewyan is derived - like many other tribal and place names on the Northwestern Plains and in the Subarctic, from the Cree language , which they called Wetcipwayi Wiyiniwuk or Cīpwayān - "People wearing Pointed Skins" as a reference to the The cut and style of the Chipewyan parkas
- ↑ further variants depending on the dialect: Tse Keh Nay, Tsay Keh Dene or Tθek'ehne ; "Sekani" is an Anglicization of this term
- ↑ However, according to JR Akins in 1915 and according to information from locals in the 1980s, the name Chinchaga means "Great Forest River" or "Great Wood River", as many spruce trees grow along its bank .
- ↑ Bernadette Calonego: trespassing on Peace River. Tages-Anzeiger, March 20, 2017, p. 8.
- ^ NDP government sends Site C dam for independent review. Vancouver Sun , August 2, 2017, accessed October 23, 2017 .