Taku River

Not to be confused with the Taku Arm of Tagish Lake.
Taku River
Aerial view of the Taku River
Taku River is located in Alaska
Taku River
Location of the mouth of the Taku River in Alaska
EtymologyGoose Flood
Native nameT'aaḵu Héeni (Tlingit)
Location
CountryCanada, United States
StateAlaska
ProvinceBritish Columbia
Physical characteristics
SourceInklin–Nakina confluence
MouthPacific Ocean
 • location
Stephens Passage, Alexander Archipelago, United States
 • coordinates
58°25′35″N 133°58′38″W / 58.42639°N 133.97722°W / 58.42639; -133.97722[1]
Length87 km (54 mi)[2]
Basin size27,500 km2 (10,600 sq mi)[3]
Discharge 
 • average600 m3/s (21,000 cu ft/s)[4]

The Taku River (Lingít: T'aaḵu Héeni) is a river running from British Columbia, Canada, to the northwestern coast of North America, at Juneau, Alaska. The river basin spreads across 27,500 square kilometres (10,600 sq mi).[3] The Taku is a very productive salmon river and its drainage basin is primarily wilderness.[4]

During the 18th and early 19th centuries, the Taku Indians controlled the trade routes on the river and compelled natives of the Interior to use them as middle-men, instead of allowing trade directly with white settlers.[5]

The Hudson's Bay Company established a trading post called Fort Durham, also known as Fort Taku, near the mouth of the Taku River in the early 1840s to take advantage of the natural trade route. However, by 1843, Fort Durham had been abandoned as unprofitable.[6]

Although a major river, the Taku's name does not extend to its headwaters. Its name begins at the confluence of the Inklin and Nakina Rivers, which is the location of the tiny community of Inklin. The Inklin's name also only extends upstream to the confluence of the Nahlin and Sheslay Rivers, which the Nakina's main tributaries are the Sloko and Silver Salmon Rivers.

One account of its name is that "Taku" is the Tlingit language word for "salmon"[7] but the Taku Tlingit name for themselves T'aaku Kwáan translates as "Geese Flood Upriver Tribe"".[8] There are also three kwaans of the Tlingit people: Taku Kwaan, Yenyeidi, wolf clan "own" Taku watershed, originating from yen hidi, 12 miles s/e of Juneau, a coastal clan, NOT inland in British Columbia, the Áa Tlein Kwáan ("Big Lake Tribe", today organized as the Taku River Tlingit First Nation) and the Deisleen Kwáan ("Big Sinew Tribe", today organized as the Teslin Tlingit Council); the territory of the former includes those areas of the Taku basin in British Columbia.

  1. ^ "Taku River". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior. Retrieved 2010-11-24.
  2. ^ Orth, Donald J.; United States Geological Survey (1971) [1967]. Dictionary of Alaska Place Names: Geological Survey Professional Paper 567 (PDF). United States Government Printing Office. p. 944. Retrieved January 6, 2014.
  3. ^ a b "Canada Drainage Basins". The National Atlas of Canada, 5th edition. Natural Resources Canada. 1985. Retrieved 24 November 2010.
  4. ^ a b Benke, Arthur C.; Cushing, Colbert E. (2011). Rivers of North America. Academic Press. p. 772. ISBN 978-0-08-045418-4.
  5. ^ Muir, J., Travels in Alaska (Houghton Mifflin Company, 1915) Archived 2007-04-19 at the Wayback Machine
  6. ^ "Background - Native Culture," Historic Preservation Program, Juneau History, City and Borough of Juneau, Alaska (Juneau Public Libraries, 2003).[1]
  7. ^ "Taku River". BC Geographical Names.
  8. ^ Map of T'aaku kwaan territories