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91-615: The Yellowstone River watershed is a river basin spanning 37,167 square miles (96,260 km) across Montana , with minor extensions into Wyoming and North Dakota , toward headwaters and terminus, respectively. The Yellowstone Basin watershed contains a system of rivers, including the Yellowstone River, and four tributary basins: the Clarks Fork Yellowstone , Wind River and Bighorn River , Tongue River , and Powder River . These rivers form tributaries to

182-618: A band of "dissident" Hidatsas led by Bobtail Bull and later Crow Flies High left the orthodox or conservative group in Like a Fishhook Village. For protection, they build a new village just two miles west of the military post Fort Buford. At times the men scouted for the Army. By keeping a low profile while hunting deer and other small game along the Little Missouri, they succeeded as non-reservation Indians until 1894. The Three Tribes sold

273-703: A base of operations at the mouth of Rosebud Creek on the Yellowstone, but the US miscalculated the strength of the Lakota, who had gathered by the thousands along the river. Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer departed from Rosebud Creek with the 7th Cavalry on the expedition that ended in his complete defeat by the Lakota and Cheyenne at the Battle of the Little Bighorn . The army ferried its survivors down

364-588: A detailed log during the journey. The names he bestowed were recorded by an expedition representative of the War Department and applied to official maps; they include the following: The Yellowstone River had long been an important artery of transportation for Native Americans . The region around the Big Horn, Powder and Tongue rivers is the traditional summer hunting grounds for numerous Native American tribes: Lakota Sioux , Crow, Cheyenne and Cree . Gold

455-454: A drainage basin, and there are different ways to interpret that data. In the unlikely event that the gauges are many and evenly distributed over an area of uniform precipitation, using the arithmetic mean method will give good results. In the Thiessen polygon method, the drainage basin is divided into polygons with the rain gauge in the middle of each polygon assumed to be representative for

546-540: A drainage boundary is referred to as watershed delineation . Finding the area and extent of a drainage basin is an important step in many areas of science and engineering. Most of the water that discharges from the basin outlet originated as precipitation falling on the basin. A portion of the water that enters the groundwater system beneath the drainage basin may flow towards the outlet of another drainage basin because groundwater flow directions do not always match those of their overlying drainage network. Measurement of

637-524: A forecast of more rain to come. The historic Carbella Bridge was destroyed. In June 2023, a railroad bridge collapsed that had been built adjacent to the Twin Bridges Road Bridge ( c.  1931 –2021). This resulted in several rail cars falling into the Yellowstone River. Approximately 48,000 US gallons (180,000 L) of molten petroleum products were released into the river. Fish consumption advisories were put in place due to

728-470: A history of nine oil spills in 2006–14 leaking an amount of 11,000 US gallons (42,000 L; 9,200 imp gal) of crude. Also, their sister company Belle Fourche Pipeline owned by Tad True and their family, recorded twenty-one incidents in the same period leaking 272,832 US gallons (1,032,780 L; 227,180 imp gal) of oil, both companies had federal fines levied against them and appear in governments records. The oil cleanup on Yellowstone River

819-505: A massive fish kill attributed to proliferative kidney disease, a rare but serious salmonid disease. The parasite-- Tetracapsuloides bryosalmonae —is not harmful to humans or other mammals. Wildlife officials estimate tens of thousands of fish may have died, mostly mountain whitefish , but Yellowstone cutthroat and rainbow trout have been affected. The closure is expected to cause significant adverse economic impact to businesses which depend on summer tourist and recreational activities along

910-426: A point where surface water is lost underground . Drainage basins are similar but not identical to hydrologic units , which are drainage areas delineated so as to nest into a multi-level hierarchical drainage system . Hydrologic units are defined to allow multiple inlets, outlets, or sinks. In a strict sense, all drainage basins are hydrologic units but not all hydrologic units are drainage basins. About 48.71% of

1001-667: A segment of land to the United States in 1870. The last treaty that diminished the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation was signed in 1886 (ratified in 1891). In the next century, the tribes would win a claims case and receive payment for some of the land lost by executive order fifty years before. The all-overshadowing troubles with the Lakotas faded after the conclusion of a peace agreement in 1875, with Colonel G. A. Custer as mediator. From then on,

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1092-428: A succession of elevated features, such as ridges and hills . A basin may consist of smaller basins that merge at river confluences , forming a hierarchical pattern . Other terms for a drainage basin are catchment area , catchment basin , drainage area , river basin , water basin , and impluvium . In North America, they are commonly called a watershed , though in other English-speaking places, "watershed"

1183-569: A treaty on land north of Heart River. Eleven years later, the Three Tribes would not inhabit a single summer village in the treaty area. The Lakota had more or less annexed it, although a participant in the peace treaty. Encouraged by Karl Bodmer, Swiss artist Rudolph F. Kurz traveled the Northern Plains in the early 1850s. He left an account as well as sketches of the village tribes. Four Bears, outstanding Hidatsa war chief after

1274-568: A village of Mandan and another of Awatixa. The Awatixa ("Village of the Scattered Lodges") or Awadixá (″High Village″) originated not from the earth, but from the sky, led by Charred Body. According to their tradition, their first people lived near Painted Woods, "where they were created." After that they always lived between the Heart River (Naada Aashi / Naadáashishh) and Knife River (Mee ecci Aashi / Mé'cii'aashish) along

1365-550: Is considered a long-term risk." Nearly 6,000 people were told not to use municipal water in Glendive due to the elevated levels of cancer-causing benzene found in the Yellowstone River, and in the tap water supplied. Bottled water was provided to their residents. On January 23, 2015, the city water treatment plant was declared decontaminated. City officials declared tap water safe to consume. The Wyoming company from True Companies' Poplar pipeline system involved in this incident has

1456-797: Is joined by the Bighorn River . Farther downriver, it is joined by the Tongue near Miles City , and then by the Powder in eastern Montana. It flows into the Missouri River near Buford, North Dakota just upstream from Lake Sakakawea . The latter is a reservoir formed in 1953 by the Garrison Dam , built on the Missouri River within the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation . It flooded the fertile bottomlands of

1547-587: Is normally done by boat. The most productive stretch of water is through Paradise Valley in Montana, especially near Livingston which holds brown , rainbow and native Yellowstone cutthroat trout as well as mountain whitefish . From Billings downstream to the North Dakota border, anglers seek burbot , channel catfish , paddlefish , sauger , smallmouth bass , and walleye . The pallid sturgeon ( Scaphirhynchus albus ), an endangered species endemic to

1638-499: Is present in some streams within the watershed. The exploitation of oil resources and infrastructure in the region has also produced contamination of the river, including by major oil spills . The Yellowstone River is considered to be one of the greatest trout streams of the world and is officially classed as a blue ribbon stream in Montana from the park to the confluence with the Boulder River east of Livingston and from

1729-487: Is referred to as " watershed management ". In Brazil , the National Policy of Water Resources, regulated by Act n° 9.433 of 1997, establishes the drainage basin as the territorial division of Brazilian water management. When a river basin crosses at least one political border, either a border within a nation or an international boundary, it is identified as a transboundary river . Management of such basins becomes

1820-503: Is related to that of the Crow , and they are sometimes considered a parent tribe to the modern Crow in Montana . The Hidatsa's autonym is Hiraacá . According to the tribal tradition, the word hiraacá derives from the word " willow "; however, the etymology is not transparent and the similarity to mirahací ‘willows’ inconclusive. The present name Hidatsa was formerly borne by one of

1911-614: Is the Dead Sea . Drainage basins have been historically important for determining territorial boundaries, particularly in regions where trade by water has been important. For example, the English crown gave the Hudson's Bay Company a monopoly on the fur trade in the entire Hudson Bay basin, an area called Rupert's Land . Bioregional political organization today includes agreements of states (e.g., international treaties and, within

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2002-404: Is used only in its original sense, that of the drainage divide line. A drainage basin's boundaries are determined by watershed delineation , a common task in environmental engineering and science. In a closed drainage basin, or endorheic basin , rather than flowing to the ocean, water converges toward the interior of the basin, known as a sink , which may be a permanent lake, a dry lake , or

2093-713: The African Great Lakes , the interiors of Australia and the Arabian Peninsula , and parts in Mexico and the Andes . Some of these, such as the Great Basin, are not single drainage basins but collections of separate, adjacent closed basins. In endorheic bodies of water where evaporation is the primary means of water loss, the water is typically more saline than the oceans. An extreme example of this

2184-681: The Arapahoan languages speaking peoples. The nomadic Gros Ventre were called Minnetarees of Fort de Prairie, Minnetarees of the Prairie, Minnetarees of the Plains or Gros Ventres of the Prairie while the semisedentary Hidatsa were known as Minnetarees of the Missouri or Gros Ventres of the Missouri . For hundreds of years the Knife River area in present North Dakota was the home of

2275-765: The Continental Divide , northern Alaska and parts of North Dakota , South Dakota , Minnesota , and Montana in the United States, the north shore of the Scandinavian peninsula in Europe, central and northern Russia, and parts of Kazakhstan and Mongolia in Asia , which totals to about 17% of the world's land. Just over 13% of the land in the world drains to the Pacific Ocean . Its basin includes much of China, eastern and southeastern Russia, Japan,

2366-714: The Korean Peninsula , most of Indochina, Indonesia and Malaysia, the Philippines, all of the Pacific Islands , the northeast coast of Australia , and Canada and the United States west of the Continental Divide (including most of Alaska), as well as western Central America and South America west of the Andes. The Indian Ocean 's drainage basin also comprises about 13% of Earth's land. It drains

2457-631: The Minnetaree Indian name Mi tse a-da-zi (Yellow Rock River) ( Hidatsa : miʔciiʔriaashiish' ). Common lore recounts that the name was inspired by the yellow-colored rocks along the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, but the Minnetaree never lived along the upper stretches of the Yellowstone. Some scholars think that the river was instead named after yellow-colored sandstone bluffs on the lower Yellowstone. The Cheyenne , who lived in

2548-713: The Missouri River (Awati /Awáati) . The Awaxawi ("Village on the Hill") or Amahami ("Broken Land", "Mountainous Country") have a creation tradition similar to that of the Mandan, which describes their emergence long ago from the Earth, at Devil's Lake (Miri xopash / Mirixubáash / Miniwakan) ("Holy Water there"). Later they moved westward to the Painted Woods (near Square Buttes or Awakotchkesshesh) and settled near

2639-458: The Missouri River . The mainstem of the Yellowstone River is more than 700 miles (1,100 km) long. At the headwaters, elevations exceed 12,800 feet (3,900 m) above sea level and descends to 1,850 feet (560 m) at the confluence with the Missouri River in far western North Dakota . The watershed spans 34,167 square miles (88,490 km). The area contains many lakes, including Yellowstone Lake . There are no storage dams located on

2730-577: The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks closed a 200-yard (180 m) section of the Yellowstone River approximately 6 miles (9.7 km) east of Reed Point at the request of the Montana Department of Transportation (MDT), after MDT inspectors discovered the bridge that carried Twin Bridges Road (former US-10) over the river was in danger of collapse. The 3-span truss bridge, built in 1931, had shown advanced deterioration of

2821-537: The groundwater . A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. Hidatsa The Hidatsa are a Siouan people. They are enrolled in the federally recognized Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota . Their language

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2912-635: The Affiliated Tribes (Mandan, Arikara, Hidatsa), damaging their economy and reducing their ability to be self-sufficient. In Montana, the river's waters have been used extensively for irrigation since the 1860s. In its upper reaches, within Yellowstone Park and the mountains of Montana, it is a popular destination for fly fishing . The Yellowstone is a Class I river from the Yellowstone National Park boundary to

3003-575: The Devils Lake region of North Dakota, before being pushed southwestward by the Lakota (Itahatski / Idaahácgi) . As they migrated west, the Hidatsa came across the Mandan at the mouth of the Heart River . The two groups formed an alliance, and settled into an amiable division of territory along the area's rivers. Prior to the epidemic of 1782, they had few enemies. The Hidatsa hunted upstream from

3094-627: The Great Lakes, including Tanner's adopted Odawa family from Michigan. However, the attack fell apart in its planning stages. The Hidatsa played a central role in the Great Plains Indian trading networks based on an advantageous geographical position combined with a surplus from agriculture and craft . Historical sources show that the Hidatsa villages were visited by Cree , Assiniboine , Crow , Cheyenne , Arapaho , Kiowa , Plains Apache and Comanche . White traders from

3185-557: The Hidatsa (they referred to them as the Minnetaree in their records) in three villages at the mouth of the Knife River , and the Mandan in two villages a few miles lower down on the Missouri River. In July 1825, the "Grovonters [Hidatsas] came into council & treaties of peace & Trade & friendship were concluded" with the United States. The tribe – in the document called "Belantse-Etoa or Minitaree" – also recognized

3276-410: The Hidatsa and their ancestors. The first villages date back to the 13th century. Accounts of recorded history in the early 18th century identify three closely related village groups to which the term Hidatsa is applied. What is now known as the Hidatsa tribe is the amalgamation of these three groups, which had discrete histories and spoke different dialects ; they came together only after settling on

3367-459: The Hidatsa had to pay attention to. A remarkable siege of the village Big Hidatsa by the Sioux around 1790 ended with a major victory for the inhabitants. They killed 100 or more retreating Sioux in a counterattack, according to the sources. Around 1795, John Tanner was present among the Mandan when they attempted to organize a concerted war against the Hidatsa, with allies from as far away as

3458-659: The Hidatsa villages and reduced "the two lower ones to ashes". Both before and after the smallpox epidemic in 1837, bloody fights took place between the Hidatsa and foes like the Assiniboine and the Yanktonai Sioux. Each tribe gave and took. The smallpox epidemic of 1837–1838 reduced the Hidatsa to about 500 people. The remaining Mandan and Hidatsa united, and moved farther up the Missouri in 1845. "Bands of Sioux waylaid hunting parties or came prowling around our villages to steal horses", explained Buffalo Bird Woman

3549-534: The Hidatsa would focus more and more on disagreements with the officials in the capital city. Good Bear performed the Naxpike (Sun Dance of the Hidatsa) in 1879. He was the final Hidatsa to do so. The Hidatsa are a matrilineal people, with descent determined through the maternal line. As the early Mandan and Hidatsa heavily intermarried, children were taught to speak the language of their mother, but understand

3640-746: The Knife River, where they adopted agriculture and permanent villages. Later they moved to the mouth of Knife River. Their territory ranged upstream along the Missouri River, its tributary regions to the west, and the Mouse River and Devils Lake regions to the northeast. They were initially part of those who would become the River Crow . The Hidatsa called the Crow Nation Gixaa'iccá / Gixáa-iccá ("Those Who Pout Over Tripe"). The Hidatsa originally lived in Miri xopash / Mirixubáash / Miniwakan ,

3731-570: The Lakota Sioux. The new competition and violence led to the Great Sioux War of 1876-77 . The US sent in troops to protect the miners, although they had violated the treaty, and to defeat the Sioux. In 1876, Colonel John Gibbon led a column of men from Fort Ellis near Bozeman, Montana and traveled down the Yellowstone to meet up with General Alfred Terry 's Dakota Column, which had traveled upstream from North Dakota. Terry formed

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3822-785: The Middle Missouri River (Awati / Awáati). The Hidatsa proper or Hiraacá / Hiratsa ("People of the Willows"), largest of the three, were a confederation of numerous nomadic Hidatsa bands from the north, who separated from the Awaxawi/Amahami in what is now western Minnesota. First they settled to the north, then later moved south to Devil's Lake. In their travels they met the Mandan (Adahpakoa / Aróxbagua) (sometimes also called: Araxbakua Itawatish) and then moved westward and settled with these distant relatives north of

3913-648: The North Dakota border for the purposes of stream access for recreational purposes. The division of water rights to the entire Yellowstone River Basin among Wyoming, Montana and North Dakota, governed by a 1950 compact, was disputed in a 2010 lawsuit brought directly to the U.S. Supreme Court by Montana against Wyoming. Oral argument took place in January 2011. On May 2, 2011, the Court held 7-2 (by Justice Thomas, with Justice Scalia dissenting) that Montana had no valid claim that its water supply had been diminished since Wyoming

4004-590: The Pacific Coast. Clark's Fork of the river was named after him. Most of the natural features of the Yellowstone Valley not already named by Lewis and Clark were named by pioneer steamboat captain Grant Marsh . Marsh was selected by the Army for an exploratory expedition in 1873 on his riverboat Key West . The team was commanded by Brevet Brig. Gen. George Alexander Forsyth . Marsh kept

4095-478: The Three Tribes call for the United States Army to intervene. Already in 1857, the Hidatsa chief Long Hair had accused the Sioux of trying to be "the strongest and most powerful people on the Earth". Years later it would be chief Crows Breast's turn to raise hard-worded complaints about the Sioux. The Hidatsas were not idle themselves, at times even raiding Lakotas south of Heart River. Around 1870

4186-425: The US Army during the war and the Crow Indian Reservation was established in south-central Montana. The Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation is south of the Yellowstone in Montana. Many of the early expeditions to the area that was later protected as Yellowstone National Park traveled along the Yellowstone River. These included the Cook–Folsom–Peterson Expedition and the Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition . In

4277-417: The US, interstate compacts ) or other political entities in a particular drainage basin to manage the body or bodies of water into which it drains. Examples of such interstate compacts are the Great Lakes Commission and the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency . In hydrology , the drainage basin is a logical unit of focus for studying the movement of water within the hydrological cycle . The process of finding

4368-406: The Yellowstone River converge. The North Fork, the larger of the two forks, flows from Younts Peak . The South Fork flows from the southern slopes of Thorofare Mountain. The Yellowstone River flows northward through Yellowstone National Park , feeding and draining Yellowstone Lake , then dropping over the Upper and Lower Yellowstone Falls at the head of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone within

4459-466: The Yellowstone River for 56 minutes before it was shut down. As a precaution against a possible explosion, officials in Laurel, Montana evacuated about 140 people on Saturday just after midnight, allowing them to return at 4 a.m. Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer stated that "The parties responsible will restore the Yellowstone River". According to the Bridger Pipeline LLC, an oil spill occurred near Glendive on January 17, 2015, at 10 a.m. In response,

4550-720: The Yellowstone Watershed that have lasted several years. Droughts have occurred in the basin in 1929–42, 1948–62 and 1976–82. The 1977 drought affected most of the western United States and resulted in decreased streamflows in the watershed. The reduced flow resulted in increased dissolved solids concentrations in the basin. Water quality varies across the various rivers in the basin. In mountainous areas, suspended sediment and dissolved solid concentrations are lower than in basin and plain areas. Human activities, including agriculture and mining , along with natural sources, contribute to suspended sedimentation levels in plain areas. In addition, fecal bacteria , salt , and selenium contamination

4641-452: The Yellowstone to the Missouri, and to Fort Abraham Lincoln . The US Army returned in force and finally achieved victory over the tribes, forcing them onto reservations. The Lakota and allies were forced from eastern Montana and Wyoming: some bands fled to Canada, while others suffered removal to distant reservations, primarily located in present-day South Dakota and Nebraska west of the Missouri River. Crow warriors had enlisted as scouts with

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4732-433: The areas of present-day Billings and Yellowstone County , called it Mo'éheo'hé'e (also Yellow Rocks River). The Crow , who lived along the upper Yellowstone in southern Montana, called it E-chee-dik-karsh-ah-shay (Elk River). Translating the Minnetaree name, French trappers in the area referred to the river as Roche Jaune (Yellow Rock), a name adopted by ethnic American, French and other European mountain men until

4823-406: The basin, it can form tributaries that change the structure of the land. There are three different main types, which are affected by the rocks and ground underneath. Rock that is quick to erode forms dendritic patterns, and these are seen most often. The two other types of patterns that form are trellis patterns and rectangular patterns. Rain gauge data is used to measure total precipitation over

4914-441: The confines of the park. After passing through the Black Canyon of the Yellowstone downstream of the Grand Canyon, the river flows northward into Montana between the northern Absaroka Range and the Gallatin Range in Paradise Valley . The river emerges from the mountains near the town of Livingston , where it turns eastward and northeastward, flowing across the northern Great Plains past the city of Billings . East of Billings, it

5005-443: The detection of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in mountain whitefish downstream of the collapse. Flooding occurs in the watershed due to snowmelt , rainfall , and intense thunderstorms . In higher elevations, snowmelt can cause flood conditions due to rapid melt in spring and early summer. In lower elevations, regional rainstorms and intense thunderstorms can cause flooding in summer and fall. Severe droughts have occurred in

5096-705: The dialect of either tribe. A short description of Hidatsa-Mandan culture, including a grammar and vocabulary of the Hidatsa language, was published in 1877 by Washington Matthews , a government physician assigned to the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation . During the early 20th century, Gilbert Livingston Wilson carried out extensive ethnographic work with the elderly Hidatsa woman, Buffalo Bird Woman . He also interviewed members of her immediate family at Fort Berthold. From his information gathered from them, Wilson described traditional economy, ceremony, and day-to-day practices as remembered by Buffalo-Bird Woman, who lived at Like-a-Fishhook Village. Frances Densmore recorded

5187-430: The discharge of water from a basin may be made by a stream gauge located at the basin's outlet. Depending on the conditions of the drainage basin, as rainfall occurs some of it seeps directly into the ground. This water will either remain underground, slowly making its way downhill and eventually reaching the basin, or it will permeate deeper into the soil and consolidate into groundwater aquifers. As water flows through

5278-441: The drainage area is dependent on the soil type. Certain soil types such as sandy soils are very free-draining, and rainfall on sandy soil is likely to be absorbed by the ground. However, soils containing clay can be almost impermeable and therefore rainfall on clay soils will run off and contribute to flood volumes. After prolonged rainfall even free-draining soils can become saturated , meaning that any further rainfall will reach

5369-642: The drainage basin to the mouth, and may accumulate there, disturbing the natural mineral balance. This can cause eutrophication where plant growth is accelerated by the additional material. Because drainage basins are coherent entities in a hydrological sense, it has become common to manage water resources on the basis of individual basins. In the U.S. state of Minnesota , governmental entities that perform this function are called " watershed districts ". In New Zealand, they are called catchment boards. Comparable community groups based in Ontario, Canada, are called conservation authorities . In North America, this function

5460-722: The early 1870s, the Northern Pacific Railroad attempted to extend rail service along the Yellowstone to Livingston from Bismarck, North Dakota , a route proposed to cross the last of the Lakota buffalo hunting grounds. This route was finally completed in 1883. By the early 20th century, Northern Pacific was providing train service along the river to the north entrance of the park near Gardiner. An ExxonMobil pipeline runs from Silver Tip, to Billings, Montana. On Friday, July 1, 2011, it ruptured about 10 miles (16 km) west of Billings at about 10:40 p.m. The resulting spill leaked an estimated 1,500 barrels of oil, equivalent to 63,000 US gallons (240,000 L; 52,000 imp gal), into

5551-427: The earthlodge villages at and below the Knife River. Here, between the Knife and Yellowstone River (Mii Ciiri Aashi /Mi'cíiriaashish) , they were numerous enough to withstand attacks of the Assiniboine (Hidusidi / Hirushíiri) , who hunted in the area but rarely wintered on the Missouri River, as part of the mighty Iron Confederacy (which was dominated by the Cree (Sahe / Shahíi) and Assiniboine) they were an opponent

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5642-432: The eastern coast of Africa, the coasts of the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf , the Indian subcontinent , Burma, and most parts of Australia . The five largest river basins (by area), from largest to smallest, are those of the Amazon (7 million km ), the Congo (4 million km ), the Nile (3.4 million km ), the Mississippi (3.22 million km ), and the Río de la Plata (3.17 million km ). The three rivers that drain

5733-412: The greatest portion of western Sub-Saharan Africa , as well as Western Sahara and part of Morocco . The two major mediterranean seas of the world also flow to the Atlantic. The Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico basin includes most of the U.S. interior between the Appalachian and Rocky Mountains , a small part of the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan , eastern Central America ,

5824-435: The ground and along rivers it can pick up nutrients , sediment , and pollutants . With the water, they are transported towards the outlet of the basin, and can affect the ecological processes along the way as well as in the receiving water body . Modern use of artificial fertilizers , containing nitrogen (as nitrates ), phosphorus , and potassium , has affected the mouths of drainage basins. The minerals are carried by

5915-422: The ground at its terminus, the area can go by several names, such playa, salt flat, dry lake , or alkali sink . The largest endorheic basins are in Central Asia , including the Caspian Sea , the Aral Sea , and numerous smaller lakes. Other endorheic regions include the Great Basin in the United States, much of the Sahara Desert , the drainage basin of the Okavango River ( Kalahari Basin ), highlands near

6006-417: The islands of the Caribbean and the Gulf, and a small part of northern South America. The Mediterranean Sea basin, with the Black Sea , includes much of North Africa , east-central Africa (through the Nile River ), Southern , Central, and Eastern Europe , Turkey , and the coastal areas of Israel , Lebanon , and Syria . The Arctic Ocean drains most of Western Canada and Northern Canada east of

6097-403: The mainstem of the Yellowstone River. However, the watershed contains five major reservoirs built on tributary rivers: Bull Lake , Boysen , Buffalo Bill , Big Horn , Tongue River , and Lake De Smet reservoirs. The river rises in northwestern Wyoming in the Absaroka Range , on the Continental Divide in southwestern Park County . The river starts where the North Fork and the South Fork of

6188-403: The mid-19th century. Independently, Lewis and Clark recorded the English translation of Yellow Stone for the river after they encountered the Minnetaree in 1805. With expanding settlement by English-speaking people from the United States, the English name eventually became the most widely used. The river was explored in 1806 by William Clark as the Lewis and Clark Expedition returned east from

6279-409: The most water, from most to least, are the Amazon, Ganges , and Congo rivers. Endorheic basin are inland basins that do not drain to an ocean. Endorheic basins cover around 18% of the Earth's land. Some endorheic basins drain to an Endorheic lake or Inland sea . Many of these lakes are ephemeral or vary dramatically in size depending on climate and inflow. If water evaporates or infiltrates into

6370-404: The mouth of Rosebud creek near Rosebud, Montana to the North Dakota border. The lack of dams along the river provides for excellent trout habitat from high inside Yellowstone Park, downstream through Gardiner , the Paradise Valley, Livingston, and to Big Timber , a stretch of nearly 200 miles (320 km). The Yellowstone varies in width from 74 feet (23 m) to 300 feet (91 m), so fishing

6461-459: The north, like North West Company man David Thompson, began to visit the Hidatsa and Mandan villages during the 1790s. In 1800, a group of Hidatsa abducted Sacagawea and several other girls in a battle that resulted in death among the Shoshone (Maabúgsharuxbaaga) ("Snake People") of four men, four women and several boys. She was taken as a captive to a Hidatsa village near present-day Washburn, North Dakota . In 1804, Lewis and Clark came to

6552-499: The pipeline company shut down the pipeline at 11 a.m. in effort to prevent further environmental hazards. The company stated that 300–1,200 oil barrels (equivalent to 12,600 to 50,400 US gallons) were spilled into the river. State officials estimated, on the other hand, up to 50,000 US gallons (190,000 L; 42,000 imp gal) of spilled oil. Benzene , a carcinogen , was found in ten to fifteen parts per billion. An EPA official said that "anything above five parts per billion

6643-418: The rainfall on the area of land included in its polygon. These polygons are made by drawing lines between gauges, then making perpendicular bisectors of those lines form the polygons. The isohyetal method involves contours of equal precipitation are drawn over the gauges on a map. Calculating the area between these curves and adding up the volume of water is time-consuming. Isochrone maps can be used to show

6734-571: The reason for leaving their native land through centuries along Knife River. They eventually settled at Like-a-Fishhook Village (Mua iruckup hehisa atis, Mu'a-idu'skupe-hi'cec) near Fort Berthold, a trading post. They were joined there by the Arikara (Adakadaho / Aragárahu) in 1862. The Hidatsa tribe was one party in the Treaty of Fort Laramie, 1851. Along with the Mandan and the Arikara, they got

6825-631: The responsibility of the countries sharing it. Nile Basin Initiative , OMVS for Senegal River , Mekong River Commission are a few examples of arrangements involving management of shared river basins. Management of shared drainage basins is also seen as a way to build lasting peaceful relationships among countries. The catchment is the most significant factor determining the amount or likelihood of flooding . Catchment factors are: topography , shape, size, soil type, and land use (paved or roofed areas). Catchment topography and shape determine

6916-461: The river rather than being absorbed by the ground. If the surface is impermeable the precipitation will create surface run-off which will lead to higher risk of flooding; if the ground is permeable, the precipitation will infiltrate the soil. Land use can contribute to the volume of water reaching the river, in a similar way to clay soils. For example, rainfall on roofs, pavements , and roads will be collected by rivers with almost no absorption into

7007-615: The river. On September 1, 2016, the agency reopened two stretches of the river. The first stretch, from the northern boundary of Yellowstone National Park to Carbella, Montana, was open to non-fishing recreation only to allow the fish population to recover. The second stretch, from Carbella, Montana to Laurel, Montana , was opened to all uses. Peak Yellowstone River temperatures exceeded 68 °F (20 °C) for 18 straight days from July 17 to August 4. Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks notes that trout and whitefish prefer water temperatures close to 55 °F (13 °C). On January 26, 2021,

7098-455: The smallpox epidemic of 1837, (was one of the people who started Like-A-Fishhook Village for the Hidatsa, Mandan, and Arikara – and is not to be mistaken with the famous Mandan chief Mato-tope (Four Bears) ), was killed along with other villagers by attacking Yankton Sioux in 1861. In December 1862, some Sioux burned parts of Like a Fishhook Village and they may have lifted cached corn at the same time. Attacks made on their homes like this made

7189-418: The speed with which the runoff reaches a river. A long thin catchment will take longer to drain than a circular catchment. Size will help determine the amount of water reaching the river, as the larger the catchment the greater the potential for flooding. It is also determined on the basis of length and width of the drainage basin. Soil type will help determine how much water reaches the river. The runoff from

7280-517: The structural members. Of particular concern, one of the bridge piers had lost about half of its support capacity due to bridge scour undermining the pier footings. MDT awarded a $ 2 million emergency demolition contract on March 11, 2021. By the end of April 2021, construction crews had safely dismantled the failing structure, and the river reopened on May 26, 2021. On June 13, 2022, Yellowstone National Park officials announced all park entrances were closed to visitors, citing "record flooding events" and

7371-516: The supremacy of the United States, whether it understood it or not. The peace treaty was never broken. "We have always been friends to the whites", emphasized Wolf Chief in 1888, and it never came to fights with the United States Army. Tribal appearance and customs have been documented by the visits of two artists of the American west. The allied tribes were first visited by American George Catlin , who remained with them several months in 1832. He

7462-623: The three tribal villages. When the villages consolidated, the name was adopted for the tribe as a whole. They are called the Mį́nįtaree (″to cross the water″) by their allies, the Mandan ; in Assiniboine the Assiniboine (called Hidusidi by the Hidatsa) know them as: wakmúhaza yúde, ȟewáktųkta Occasionally they have also been confused with the Gros Ventres in present-day Montana and Prairie Provinces of Canada, which were part of

7553-415: The time taken for rain to reach the river, while catchment size, soil type, and development determine the amount of water to reach the river. Generally, topography plays a big part in how fast runoff will reach a river. Rain that falls in steep mountainous areas will reach the primary river in the drainage basin faster than flat or lightly sloping areas (e.g., > 1% gradient). Shape will contribute to

7644-477: The time taken for runoff water within a drainage basin to reach a lake, reservoir or outlet, assuming constant and uniform effective rainfall. Drainage basins are the principal hydrologic unit considered in fluvial geomorphology . A drainage basin is the source for water and sediment that moves from higher elevation through the river system to lower elevations as they reshape the channel forms. Drainage basins are important in ecology . As water flows over

7735-471: The waters of the Missouri and lower Mississippi River basins, is also found in the Yellowstone. River basin A drainage basin is an area of land in which all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth , or flows into another body of water , such as a lake or ocean . A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, the drainage divide , made up of

7826-729: The world's land drains to the Atlantic Ocean . In North America , surface water drains to the Atlantic via the Saint Lawrence River and Great Lakes basins, the Eastern Seaboard of the United States, the Canadian Maritimes , and most of Newfoundland and Labrador . Nearly all of South America east of the Andes also drains to the Atlantic, as does most of Western and Central Europe and

7917-600: Was discovered near Virginia City, Montana in the 1860s, and two of the primary routes for accessing the goldfields were the Bozeman Trail and the Bridger Trail both of which followed the Yellowstone for a short length. In the 19th century, European-American settlers depended on the river for transportation, and generally entered the region by riverboat . Native American anger at settler encroachment on their hunting grounds led to Red Cloud's War . The conflict

8008-567: Was followed by Karl Bodmer , a Swiss painter accompanying German explorer Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied on a Missouri River expedition from 1832 to 1834. Catlin and Bodmer's works record the Hidatsa and Mandan societies, where were rapidly changing under pressure from encroaching settlers, infectious disease, and government restraints. In the spring of 1834, the Awaxawi and Awatixa settled in Big Hidatsa by necessity. The Sioux had attacked

8099-422: Was irrigating the same acreage as always, albeit by a more modern method that returned less runoff to go downstream to Montana. (A subsequent 2011 Supreme Court case, in which Montana asserted ownership of Missouri Basin river bottoms, so as to collect decades of back rent from a hydropower company, is unrelated. On February 22, 2012, Montana lost that case too.) The name is widely believed to have been derived from

8190-546: Was put on hold for one month or more on February 3, 2015 until the ice melts. Montana Department of Environmental Quality was monitoring an area spanning a 90-mile (140 km) stretch of the Yellowstone, from the spill site downstream to a bridge just across the North Dakota border. On August 19, 2016 the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department indefinitely closed the river and its tributaries from Gardiner, Montana to Laurel, Montana to all recreational activity. The 183-mile (295 km) closure resulted from

8281-673: Was settled with the Treaty of Fort Laramie in 1868, by which the US granted the territory of the Black Hills and the Powder River Country to the Lakota people. This region included the drainages of the Big Horn, Powder and Tongue rivers. But the discovery of gold in 1874 in the Black Hills, however, attracted thousands of miners who invaded the sacred grounds and competed for resources. New armed conflicts broke out with

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