| Nass River | |
|---|---|
 View west on Nass River at Gitwinksihlkw | |
 Location map of the Nass River | |
| Location | |
| Country | Canada |
| Province | British Columbia |
| Districts | Cassiar Land District Range 5 Coast Land District |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Source | Nass Lake[1] |
| • location | Klappan Range,Skeena Mountains |
| • coordinates | 57°9′59″N129°6′8″W / 57.16639°N 129.10222°W /57.16639; -129.10222[1] |
| • elevation | 1,058 m (3,471 ft)[2] |
| Mouth | Nass Bay |
• location | Portland Inlet |
• coordinates | 54°58′37″N129°53′22″W / 54.97694°N 129.88944°W /54.97694; -129.88944[3] |
| Length | 380 km (240 mi)[4] |
| Basin size | 20,839 km2 (8,046 sq mi)[5] |
| Discharge | |
| • location | Mouth[6] |
| • average | 770 m3/s (27,000 cu ft/s) |
TheNass River is a river in northernBritish Columbia, Canada. It flows 380 km (240 mi) from theCoast Mountains southwest to Nass Bay, a sidewater ofPortland Inlet, which connects to the NorthPacific Ocean via theDixon Entrance. Nass Bay joins Portland Inlet just south ofObservatory Inlet.[7][8]
The English name "Nass" is derived from theTlingit nameNaas 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.[9] TheNisga'a name for the river isK'alii Aksim Lisims "Lisims (river name) Valley". TheGitxsan name isGit-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.[3]
The last 40 km (25 mi) 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 theNisga'a Nation. The name Nisga'a is a reduced form of[naːsqaʔ], which is a loan from TongassTlingit, where it means "people of the Nass River".[10][better source needed]
On the term:
Archdeacon W. H. Collison, an authority on this subject, and who has resided at Kincolith, Nass bay, since 1883, states as follows: - "The term Nass is from the Tlingit tongue, and when, as was probable, the Tlingits from Tongass, at the entrance to Observatory inlet, met Captain Vancouver they gave him their name for the river, i.e., Nass, which means literally "the stomach," from the fact that their food supplies of salmon, oolachan.. a noted fishery."[11]
About 220 years ago, as recorded by the oral history of the Nisga'a people, the Nass River wasdammed by a 22.5 km (14.0 mi) longlava flow which came from theTseax Cone and destroyed the Nisga'a villages and caused the death of at least 2000 Nisga'a people byvolcanic gas 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, modernmonitoring 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 thevolcanoes.
If theTseax Cone 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 causeforest fires and could potentially dam local rivers such as the Nass River and theTseax 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 importantsalmonfisheries on the Nass River system.
This is an incomplete list of tributaries, in upriver order:
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
