The Athabasca River (French: Rivière Athabasca ) is a river in Alberta , Canada, which originates at the Columbia Icefield in Jasper National Park and flows more than 1,231 km (765 mi) before emptying into Lake Athabasca . Much of the land along its banks is protected in national and provincial parks, and the river is designated a Canadian Heritage River for its historical and cultural importance. The scenic Athabasca Falls is located about 30 km (19 mi) upstream from Jasper .
63-944: The name Athabasca comes from the Woods Cree word ᐊᖬᐸᐢᑳᐤ aðapaskāw , which means "[where] there are plants one after another", likely a reference to the spotty vegetation along the river. The Athabasca River originates in Jasper National Park, in Lake Providence at the toe of the Columbia Glacier within the Columbia Icefield , between Mount Columbia , Snow Dome , and the Winston Churchill Range , at an elevation of approximately 1,600 metres (5,200 ft). It travels 1,231 km (765 mi) before draining into
126-572: A Baptist church, a Pentecostal church, and a Community Fellowship within New Town. There is also a Jehovah's Witness Kingdom Hall along the highway coming into town. On the Katl'odeeche First Nations Reserve there are a small Catholic church, and a larger Pentecostal church. There is also an Anglican church that was destroyed in the 2008 Hay River ice breakup. The religious diversity in Hay River exceeds
189-464: A non-specified dialect of Cree as their mother tongue, and 86,115 who said they had some knowledge of a non-specified dialect of Cree. Some of those individuals could be Woods Cree speakers. Woods Cree is not an official language of any country. Speakers of Woods Cree live in and around the northern, forested area of Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Like other western Cree languages and dialects, Woods Cree only contains seventeen different phonemes . This
252-645: A possible phonological shift that is occurring in Woods Cree speech due to the influence of the English phonology on the language, however, the data is inconclusive due to the endangered status of the language. The Woods Cree morphological form follows a similar system to that of other Western Cree dialects (for example, Swampy Cree or Plains Cree). A more comprehensive examination of the Western Cree morphological system relating to Woods Cree can be found on
315-400: A sonorant. This analysis is challenged however by particular factors which show the likeness of / ð / as an obstruent. For example, among younger speakers the / ð / phoneme is sometimes replaced by a /t/ and voicing in word-final positions also shows that it also falls under obstruent classification. One reason for this particularly unique form of the / ð / phoneme as explained in the article is
378-403: A vowelless variation of the personal prefixes. For example, the verb aðahwi:w 'he buries him' can use the vowelless, reduced version of the personal prefix nika- recognized as n- . The verb then becomes n-aðahwi:w 'I am burying him'. Woods Cree generally uses the connective variant (as seen below) more frequently than the reduced version, however the reduced version is recognized within
441-469: Is a primary school and serves students from kindergarten to Grade 3 . Princess Alexandra, named for and opened by Princess Alexandra in 1967, is a middle school and serves the Grade 4 to the Grade 7 . École Boréale is a francophone school that was opened in 2005 and works with students from PK4 to grade 12. Diamond Jenness, named for scientist and anthropologist Diamond Jenness and opened in 1973,
504-400: Is a fairly small phonemic inventory for a language; for example, Canadian English distinguishes thirty-eight phonemes. The following phonemes can be found in western Cree languages and dialects: /a, â, c, ê, h, i, î, k, m, n, o, ô, p, s, t, w, y/. Woods Cree differs only in merging /ê/ with /î/ (and thus decreasing the vowel inventory by one down to six distinct vowels) but adding "th" (/ ð /) as
567-563: Is also considered to be a highly inflectional language with all of its inflection being suffixation with the exception of the four personal prefixes. Woods Cree morphology follows the Western Cree system of morphology. Specific to Woods Cree is use of third person indefinite possessors than in other dialects of Cree. The Proto-Algonquian definite possessor prefix is reconstructed as *me- in Bloomfield (1946) Hamp (1976) expands on Bloomfield's analysis by finding in contrast * we- to be
630-566: Is found in Cree, also referred to as non-configurational . For example, the sentence "the children killed some ducks" could be expressed in the following six ways: awaˑsisak children nipaheˑwak killed siˑsiˑpa ducks awaˑsisak nipaheˑwak siˑsiˑpa children killed ducks Hay River, Northwest Territories Hay River (South Slavey: Xátł’odehchee [xátɬ’otɛhtʃʰe] ), known as "the Hub of
693-498: Is marked by rapids , impeding navigation southwest of Fort McMurray. Numerous communities are on the banks of the Athabasca River, including Jasper, Brule , Entrance , Hinton , Whitecourt , Fort Assiniboine , Smith , Athabasca , Fort McMurray , and Fort McKay . Sekani , Shuswap , Kootenay , Salish , Stoney , and Cree tribes hunted and fished along the river prior to European colonization in
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#1732765969348756-399: Is not commonly used in Woods Cree but is found in situations requiring repetition or clarification: The na- morpheme is classified as a portmanteau because it is a dental [n] and therefore it cannot be a reduced form of nika- when here the [n] assimilates with the following [k] ad becomes a velar nasal. Northern Alberta Cree (not specifically Woods Cree) has also been determined to use
819-627: Is now the Katl'odeeche First Nation or Hay River Reserve . This was sometime between 1892 and 1893. This first settlement was established by Chief Chiatlo and a group of people by the building of log cabins and bringing dairy cows. This was followed in 1893 by the Anglican Mission, at the request of Chief Chiatlo in 1893 with the Roman Catholic Mission and the Hudson's Bay Company arriving later. A school, health centre and
882-491: Is paid for through property taxes , at a rate of $ 36 per household per year. Channels 2–5, 7, and 8–13 rebroadcast Canadian and US channels in analog format from towers atop the Mackenzie Place highrise. Transmitter powers range from 9W to 2.545 kW. Channels include CIHC-TV channel 5, a community channel ; CH4435 channel 8, rebroadcasting Radio-Canada through CBFT Montreal ; and CH4160 channel 12, repeating
945-588: Is part of the Cree-Montagnais-Naskapi dialect continuum . The dialect continuum has around 116,000 speakers; the exact population of Woods Cree speakers is unknown, estimated between 2,600 and 35,000. The Woods Cree language belongs to the Algic family, within the Algonquian subfamily, and the central Cree – Montagnais – Naskapi language group. Western Cree is a term used to refer to
1008-644: Is the high school and serves Grade 8 to Grade 12 . The town also supports a Community Learning Centre and a Career Centre. CKHR-FM 107.3 is a community radio station in Hay River, and the only station in Hay River to maintain local studios; it is owned and operated by the Hay River Community Service Society. Other radio stations in Hay River are repeaters of stations based in Yellowknife . The Hay River Community Service Society also controls television broadcasting and it
1071-604: Is the main area where Woods Cree is spoken. Not only is this finding much less than the 1982 statistic, but this estimation accounts for all types of spoken Cree, not just Woods Cree spoken in Saskatchewan - but note that the Woods Cree spoken outside of Saskatchewan is not accounted for in this statistic. According to the 2016 Canadian Census there were 1,840 individuals who identified Woods Cree as their mother tongue, and 2,665 individuals who said they had some knowledge of Woods Cree. There were also 64,050 people who identified
1134-471: Is unusual in the Cree language to be used in this manner. As found in Plains Cree, only o- initial verbs are allowed the free variation of using the -t- connective . Also the lengthening of the initial vowel is only allowed in o- initial stems, as seen below: When a verb beginning with a short vowel is used a trend can be seen in Woods Cree that elides the -i- vowel: However, when determining
1197-464: The "th" dialect of Cree spoken by the group of people geographically located at the eastern foot of the Rocky Mountains. In Alberta, Woods Cree is also known as Bush Cree. Precise classification of the Woods Cree language has not been sufficiently documented. Many different names and terms have been used in the description of the "th" dialect of Cree spoken in the forested area north of
1260-402: The -t- connective is recognized to be the more common of the two. The use of -y- is also found to be in free variation with the reduced variant of the ki- prefix: In the reduced variant (as seen above in k-ayamina:naw ) the initial short vowel is not lengthened as in the non-reduced variant (i.e. ki-y-ayamihitona:na:w ). This reduction from ni- or ki- to the form n- or k-
1323-420: The -th dialect of Cree. This region of Woods Cree speakers has essentially remained the same until present. Traditionally Woods Cree was often divided into western and eastern Woods Cree, reaching as far east as Quebec. However, the actual Woods Cree language is now determined to be spoken in the mid-northern part of Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Western Woods Cree is the category of Cree languages spoken west of
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#17327659693481386-503: The Aboriginal Peoples Television Network ; among other channels. The local CBC-owned CBC North television repeater, CBEBT-1 channel 7, closed on 31 July 2012; however, the Hay River Community Service Society announced that it acquired the transmitter, which they intended to use for CBC Television service. The Hub is a weekly newspaper published by Northern News Services. Besides Hay River,
1449-523: The Canadian prairies . A more general, all-encompassing term for this dialect is " Woodland Cree ", which also refers to the cultural group living in the forested area north of the prairies. This term is used, for example, in separating the cultural groups of Cree people who live in the wooded area from the Plains Cree, who traditionally inhabited the prairies to the south. The language portal of Canada has divided all Cree languages west of Ontario up until
1512-670: The Northern Store , branches of both the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and the Royal Bank of Canada and a Home Hardware . There is also a museum detailing the history of Hay River and the Hudson's Bay Company in Old Town. Airlines servicing Hay River include the locally based Buffalo Airways , who provide scheduled flights to Yellowknife as well as charter services and a courier service throughout
1575-1278: The Peace-Athabasca Delta near Lake Athabasca south of Fort Chipewyan . From there, its waters flow north as Rivière des Rochers , then join the Peace River to form the Slave River , which empties into the Great Slave Lake and discharges through the Mackenzie River system into the Arctic Ocean . The cumulative drainage area is 95,300 km (36,800 sq mi). The river flows along icefields and through gorges , offering wildlife habitat on its shores and in adjacent marshes. Throughout its course, it flows through or adjacent to numerous national and provincial parks , including Jasper National Park , Fort Assiniboine Sandhills Wildland Provincial Park , Hubert Lake Wildland Provincial Park , La Biche River Wildland Provincial Park , Grand Rapids Wildland Provincial Park , Richardson Wildland Provincial Park , and Wood Buffalo National Park . Its course
1638-687: The Pine Point Mine development, the Mackenzie Northern Railway was constructed. The railway, through Canadian National Railway in Edmonton , makes Hay River the northernmost point in Canada, and all of North America , which is connected to the continental railway system. The Alaska Railroad is located farther north but is orphaned from the network. In 1978, Hay River, along with the now-abandoned Pine Point , hosted
1701-839: The Royal Canadian Mounted Police followed, and as part of the Canol Road project the United States Army Corps of Engineers built a runway on Vale Island in the Hay River delta. In 1948 the Government of Canada built a gravel road, now the Mackenzie Highway , from Grimshaw, Alberta to Hay River, making it the first community in the NWT to be linked with southern Canada. The settlement's role as terminus of all-season trucking, and
1764-533: The Swampy Cree Misplaced Pages page. Cree languages are polysynthetic and can have single words that would need an entire sentence to properly be expressed in English. For example: ni-kî-nohtê-wâpam-âw-ak 1 - PST -want-see. TA - 3 - PL (note: hyphens here are present solely to demonstrate the separate morphemes ) ni-kî-nohtê-wâpam-âw-ak 1-PST-want-see. TA -3-PL "I wanted to see them." (animate) Cree
1827-474: The mi- prefix. In Woods Cree the mi- prefix is not applied to members of kin as well as body parts unique to animals. This difference helps demonstrate the dialect difference between Woods Cree and other types of Cree. Plains Cree, for example, does apply indefinite third person possessors when referring to kin. In Pukatawagan Woods Cree, specific usage of the future markers have been determined. Woods Cree spoken in this area, like other Cree dialects, uses
1890-463: The / ð / phoneme, the placement of the / ð / phoneme in the phonological inventory, the voicing patterns of this phoneme in non-word final positions, the usage of /l/ phoneme as a replacement for / ð / phoneme in caregiver speech, and lastly the /l/ and / ð / phoneme replacement of /r/ in English loan words. In Proto-Algonquian , the / ð / phoneme of Woods Cree has been reconstructed as *l and, thus, also demonstrates its relation to being categorized as
1953-733: The 18th century. From about 1778, the Athabasca River, the Clearwater River , which enters the Athabasca River from the east at Fort McMurray , and the Methye Portage were part of a primary fur trade route from the Mackenzie River to the Great Lakes (see Canadian Canoe Routes (early) ). David Thompson and Thomas the Iroquois traveled through Athabasca Pass in 1811. In 1862, the Athabasca Springs area
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2016-517: The Hudson Bay and in the boreal forested area across the northern provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. In 1982 SIL (Summer Institute for Languages) found that the population of Woods Cree speakers was 35,000 people. More recently the University of Regina has documented that of the approximately 75,000 speakers of Cree across in Canada, 20,000 of them live in Saskatchewan, which
2079-677: The Long Spear people, as far back as 7000 BC. According to the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories the first buildings were those of the Hudson's Bay Company in 1868 followed by a Roman Catholic Mission in 1869 and an Anglican Mission in 1894. However, according to the history of the area provided by the town, the first permanent settlement in the area of Hay River was established in what
2142-786: The North", is a town in the Northwest Territories , Canada, located on the south shore of Great Slave Lake , at the mouth of the Hay River . The town is separated into two sections, a new town and an old town with the Hay River/Merlyn Carter Airport between them. The town is in the South Slave Region , and along with Fort Smith , the town is home to one of the two regional offices . The area has been in use by First Nations , known as
2205-468: The Rocky Mountains into four main subgroups: Plains Cree, Swampy Cree, Moose Cree and Woods Cree. However, in referring to the Woods Cree language they use the terms Woodland and Rock interchangeably. Whether these terms are interchangeable when referring to the Cree "th" dialect however has not been explicitly determined. Different sources in Canadian history texts document the area in which Woods Cree
2268-420: The conjunct order . In the independent order of Woods Cree the preverbs na- and nika- are used. The preverb ka- can be used in both the independent and conjunct orders. The preverb na- can be seen as a portmanteau morpheme, which expresses the first person future context. However, in the second person future context there is no kika- that correlates with the ka- morpheme. The independent order nika-
2331-539: The context of the situation, the initial vowel of the verb stem can be lengthened to portray the specific context: In Woods Cree, when combining a word ending with a short vowel with a word beginning with a short vowel, the rule of external sandhi requires the final vowel of the first word to be dropped and the initial vowel of the second word to be lengthened: The independent order preverbs used in other dialects of Cree (Plains Cree and Swampy Cree) are ta-, kita-, and ka- . In Woods Cree ta- and kita- only occur in
2394-510: The definite human/animal possessor and * me- to be the indefinite possessor prefix. As found in other dialects of Cree, the following possessor prefixes are used in Woods Cree: In most dialects of Cree the prefix mi- is used when describing nouns regarding an undetermined body part, clothing items, and members of kin. For example, a pair of pants (noun requiring a possessor), undetermined in whom they belong to would be preceded with
2457-537: The entire town population was ordered to evacuate by the government of the Northwest Territories due to the 2023 Canadian wildfires . The community has a full hospital, the H.H. Williams Memorial Hospital, a woman's shelter/transition house, a dental clinic and an ambulance service. The RCMP detachment has eight members and the South Mackenzie Correctional Centre is located here. There are two grocery stores in Hay River, including
2520-573: The establishment of a commercial fishing industry, started an economic boom. In 1949, the community organized its first community government, forming an Administrative District under the direction of the Government of Canada, run by a trustee board with two elected members, two appointed members, and a chairman. In 1959, the Northern Transportation Company Limited located their main base in Hay River and over
2583-401: The fifth Arctic Winter Games . In 2022, the town suffered flooding caused by ice breakup on the Hay River, resulting in an evacuation order for the entire community. Ice jams built up in two channels, and combined with a wide-ranging storm system, and already waterlogged ground resulted in a larger than normal flood. Hay River also flooded in 1963, 2008, 2009, and 2020. On 25 August 2023
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2646-471: The future markers ka- as the second person future marker. It has been agreed that this is a reduction of the second person prefix ki- and the future marker ka- . The first person future marker na- however does not follow the same reduction patterns (combining ni- first person prefix and ka- future marker). It has determined instead to be a portmanteau realization of first person and tense categories. In vowel initial verb stems, Woods Cree will use
2709-411: The globe have been recorded using the / ð / phoneme and in most of these cases this phoneme is classified as an obstruent . However, the / ð / phoneme in spoken Woods Cree has resemblance to a sonorant phoneme. Most of the evidence demonstrated in the article even concludes that it would be more logical to classify this phoneme as a sonorant due to the following five factors: the sonorant realizations of
2772-428: The language . Cree verbs that begin with a vowel use the two different connectors -y- and -t- to join the prefix with the verb: Both forms are equally acceptable. However, in Woods Cree the -y- connective is fully productive and can be used with nouns as well as verbs. This is unlike other dialects of Cree, for example, Plains Cree where the connective -t- is mainly used. In spite of using both connectives,
2835-469: The languages of Woods Cree, northern Plains Cree, western Swampy Cree, and the extinct dialect of Misinipi or Rock Cree to all fall under the Western Woods Cree languages. Another name for Woods Cree is Rocky Cree, translated by Rossignol (1939) from the Cree word asiniˑskaˑwiðiniwak . Rock Cree or Misinipi Cree was a "r" dialect of Cree but now have merged with Woods Cree, together as
2898-422: The non-palatized Cree dialects, consisting of Northern Plains Cree, Southern Plains Cree, Woods Cree, Rock Cree, Western Swampy Cree, Eastern Swampy Cree, Moose Cree, and Atikamekw. Western Woods Cree is the term used to refer to the Cree languages west of the Hudson Bay. This includes the languages Rock Cree, western Swampy Cree, and Strongwoods or Bois Fort Cree. James G.E. Smith classified the linguistic nature of
2961-424: The north. First Air provides scheduled services to Yellowknife with connections elsewhere. Northwestern Air also offers scheduled service to Edmonton and Fort Smith. Other companies offering charter services in Hay River include Landa Aviation, Carter Air Services ( fixed-wing aircraft ), Denendeh Helicopters and Remote Helicopters. Religious services include a Catholic church, an Anglican/Grace United church,
3024-510: The outward appearance given by these services. The town hosts four schools, three of which are administered by South Slave Divisional Education Council (SSDEC). The SSDEC is responsible for Harry Camsell K-3 School , Princess Alexandra Middle School , and Diamond Jenness Secondary School , while École Boréale Francophone school is administered separately by the Commission scolaire francophone des Territoires du Nord-Ouest. Harry Camsell
3087-508: The paper is available in Yellowknife, Enterprise , Fort Smith, Inuvik, Fort Providence , Fort Resolution and Grande Prairie . Internet services are provided by SSI Micro and NorthwesTel , land based telephone by Northwestel and cell phones by NMI Mobility . Hay River has a subarctic climate ( Köppen Dfc ) with summer lasting for about three months. Although winter temperatures are usually below freezing, every month of
3150-430: The plural suffix -waˑw- where all other Plains Cree speakers make use of the plural suffix - ik- . Cree is a highly inflected language and much of the syntactic expression happens within the noun or the verb itself. Due to the complex morphological characteristics of the Cree language, the syntactic word order is relatively free in comparison to many other languages. Free expression of discontinuous constituents
3213-458: The precursor to Suncor and the earliest commercial extraction operation, ruptured near the banks of the river. The total spill volume was estimated by Great Canadian Oil Sands at approximately 1,190 barrels (189 m). In 2012, an independent study concluded that the Athabasca River contained elevated levels of pollution downstream of the Athabasca oil sands. Testing showed this portion of
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#17327659693483276-469: The reflex of Proto-Algonquian *r (and thus maintaining a distinct phoneme that the other Western dialects have lost). An important aspect of the Cree vowel system is that the Proto Algonquian short /e/ phoneme merged with short /i/ phoneme as shown above. In Woods Cree the long /eː/ also has merged with the long /iː/ phoneme. Phonetically, these two sounds may also alternate. This results in
3339-527: The river contained mercury , lead , and 11 other toxic elements. In 2021, another independent research was conducted on the streamflow and climate data sets for the Athabasca River Basin showing the seasonality of the streamflow and precipitation time series via wavelet analysis. The seasonal components of these time series were shown to be coherent with phase discrepancy. The mean temperature had been gradually increasing since 1960, and it
3402-569: The river to destinations in the Athabasca and Mackenzie River watersheds. Barge traffic declined after 1964 when Hay River , on the Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories , became the northern terminus of the rail grid. Owing to its proximity to the Athabasca oil sands , the river has seen significant amounts of energy infrastructure constructed along its course. On June 6, 1970, a pipeline operated by Great Canadian Oil Sands ,
3465-420: The vowel system of Woods Cree consisting of only three long vowels /iː uː aː/ and three short vowels /i u a/ in the entire language. The distinguishing feature of Woods Cree is the use of the nonpalatalized -th sound in places where other dialects of Cree would use a different sound: for example, Plains Cree is known for using the -y phoneme . This can be demonstrated by the Cree word for 'I'. In Woods Cree
3528-619: The word for 'I' is nitha (IPA: [ niða ]) whereas in Plains Cree it would be pronounced niya (IPA: [ nija ], spelled ᓂᔭ in Cree orthography ). A significant distinction between Woods Cree and Plains Cree has been questioned in the analysis and history of the language. Various researchers and explorers throughout history however have concluded that there is a "loss of intelligibility between Woods Cree and Plains Cree", distinguishing them as separate languages. Cree / ð / shares features both with obstruents and sonorants. Many languages around
3591-403: The year has seen temperatures above 10 °C (50 °F). Rainfall, which can occur throughout the year, averages 217.4 mm (8.56 in) and snowfall 138.9 cm (54.7 in). From December to January on average there are 71.8 days when the wind chill is below −30, which indicates that frostbite may occur within 10 – 30 minutes. The highest temperature ever recorded in Hay River
3654-447: The years developed the facilities. Today the base is the major staging point for the annual sealift along the Mackenzie River , via Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk and the communities of the Arctic Ocean , as far east as Taloyoak , Nunavut and west to Utqiagvik, Alaska . In 1964, Vale Island, the historical location of the town, was severely flooded. As a response, the town was moved to the new location upstream. By 1964, as part of
3717-438: Was 36.7 °C (98.1 °F) on 9 August 1981. The coldest temperature ever recorded was −52.2 °C (−62.0 °F) on 23 January 1906. In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada , Hay River had a population of 3,169 living in 1,274 of its 1,541 total private dwellings, a change of -10.2% from its 2016 population of 3,528 . With a land area of 122.4 km (47.3 sq mi), it had
3780-454: Was and still is spoken today. In the early 1900s, J.B. Tyrrell , a Canadian geologist and cartographer and the editor of explorer David Thompson 's work found that the people living in the area of Île-à-la-Crosse and upper Churchill River referred to themselves as Nahathaway and spoke the particular -th dialect of Woods Cre e. The Hudson's Bay Company had made record of the area west of James Bay being inhabited by people speaking
3843-719: Was crossed during the Cariboo Gold Rush by the Overlander Party . The northern segment of the Athabasca River became part of a major shipping network in 1921 when the Alberta and Great Waterways Railway reached Waterways near Fort McMurray , making it the northernmost point on the North American railroad grid at that time. Cargo for destinations farther north was shipped to Waterways and transferred to barges, after which fleets of tugboats took them up
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#17327659693483906-571: Was designated a Canadian heritage river for its importance to the fur trade and the construction of railways and roads opening up the Canadian West , as well as for its natural heritage. The Canadian Heraldic Authority named the position of Athabaska Herald after the river. Woods Cree Woods Cree is an indigenous language spoken in Northern Manitoba , Northern Saskatchewan and Northern Alberta , Canada . It
3969-631: Was projected to increase by approximately 2 °C during the mid-century, possibly reducing the snowpack volume during the spring. On October 31, 2013, a pit at the Obed Mountain coal mine spilled , and between 600 million and a billion litres of slurry poured into Plante and Apetowun Creeks. The plume of waste products then joined the Athabasca River, travelling downstream for a month before settling in Lake Athabasca near Fort Chipewyan, over 500 km (310 mi) away. The river
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