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24-667: The regions along the river are the traditional home of the Dane-zaa people , called the Beaver by the Europeans. The fur trader Peter Pond is believed to have visited the river in 1785. In 1788 Charles Boyer of the North West Company established a fur trading post at the river's junction with the Boyer River . In 1792 and 1793, the explorer Alexander Mackenzie travelled up the river to

48-699: Is a translation of the name used by several of their neighboring tribes. The Dakelh called them Tsattine / Tsat'en and the Plains Cree called them Amiskiwiyiniw , both meaning "Those who live among the beaver" or "Beaver People." In French, they are known as the Gens de Castor , meaning "People of the Beaver". Prior to the 19th century, the Dane-zaa inhabited lands further east, near the Athabaska and Clearwater Rivers , and north to Lake Athabaska , as well as territory north of

72-714: The Continental Divide . Mackenzie referred to the river as Unjegah , from the Dane-zaa meaning "large river." The decades of hostilities between the Dane-zaa and the Cree , (in which the Cree dominated the Dane-zaa), ended in 1781 when a smallpox epidemic decimated the Cree. The Treaty of the Peace was celebrated by the smoking of a ceremonial pipe . The treaty made the Peace River a border, with

96-637: The Dane-zaa language . Approximately 2,000 Dane-zaa live in Alberta. Europeans historically referred to the Dane-zaa as the Beaver . The name Dunne-za has been translated to "Those who live among the beaver." The spelling Dane-zaa is typically used for "the Real People." That spelling is used by the Dane-zaa Language Authority. Different tribes and First Nations use different spellings. For example,

120-540: The Doig River First Nation (DRFN) and Halfway River First Nation (HRFN) use Dane-Zaa . Prophet River First Nation (PRFN) uses Dene Tsaa ; and the West Moberly First Nations (WMFNs) use Dunne-za or Dunne Za . Where other spellings are used in citations, such as Dunne-Za (e.g., Ridington 1988), they are kept intact and are synonymous with Dane-zaa. The historic usual English term Beaver

144-526: The Slave River , it has an annual discharge of 68.2 billion cubic metres (55.3 million acre-feet). A large man-made lake, Williston Lake , has been formed on the upper reaches by the construction of the W. A. C. Bennett Dam for hydroelectric power generation. Prior to its flooding, the confluence of the Finlay and Parsnip Rivers at Finlay Forks was distinct. A half mile east of that location were

168-440: The Alberta government and private producers were studying the possibility of hydroelectric development on the Alberta stretch of the river with one run-of-the-river project currently being proposed. ( MW ) This river is 1,923 kilometres (1,195 mi) long (from the head of Finlay River to Lake Athabasca). It drains an area of approximately 302,500 square kilometres (116,800 sq mi). At Peace Point, where it drains in

192-500: The Cree would live south of the Peace River, and the Dane-zaa north. The Peace River, before and after its new name, marked a boundary zone, where groups met for trade, celebration, and settling of disputes. A post journal of 1799–1800 mentions people trading at the post who can be identified as the ancestors of members of the former Fort St John Band, now the Doig River and Blueberry River First Nations. Doig oral history confirms that

216-549: The Dane-zaa First Nations, which was published by UBC Press in 2013. It features the oral history of the Dane-zaa from pre-history to the present day. Treaty 8 Tribal Association members: North Peace Tribal Council members: Williston Lake Williston Lake is a reservoir created by the W. A. C. Bennett Dam which is located in the Northern Interior of British Columbia , Canada. The lake fills

240-625: The Dane-zaa to the North and the Cree to the South. In 1794, a fur trading post was built on the Peace River at Fort St. John ; it was the first settlement established on the British Columbia mainland by Europeans. The rich soils of the Peace River valley in Alberta have been producing wheat crops since the late 19th century. In the early 21st century, the BC Grain Producers Association

264-610: The Peace River was the Grahame , a Hudson's Bay Company vessel built at Fort Chipewyan , on Lake Athabasca . Brothers of the Oblate Order of Mary Immaculate built the St. Charles to navigate the upper reaches of the River, from Fort Vermilion to Hudson's Hope . Approximately a dozen vessels were to navigate the river. Most of the early vessels were wood-burning steamships, fueled by wood cut from

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288-469: The W. A. C. Bennet Dam's large reservoir storage to further develop the river with the Peace Canyon Dam opened in 1980. The Site C dam is under construction and scheduled to be finished in 2025; it will further benefit from the upstream dams and generate additional electrical capacity to meet British Columbia's growing demand for green energy and reduce the carbon footprint of residents. As of 2020 both

312-611: The Williston Reservoir, in clockwise order from the Peace River outlet: Additionally, the following creeks empty into Williston Reservoir, in clockwise order from the Peace River outlet (this list is not comprehensive): Williston Lake was created in 1968 by the building of the W. A. C. Bennett Dam on the Peace River , which flooded the aboriginal-territorial home of the Tsay Keh Dene First Nation . The reservoir

336-542: The ancestors of present Dane-zaa families were in the upper Peace River area prior to the first contact by Alexander Mackenzie in 1793. Traders provisioned their expeditions with bison meat and grease provided by the Dane-zaa in their hunting on the rich prairies of the upper Peace River area. By the time the Hudson's Bay Company took over the North West Company in 1823, bison were scarce. Traditionally, Dane-zaa has followed

360-656: The basin of the upper Peace River , backing into the Rocky Mountain Trench which is where the Parsnip and Finlay met at Finlay Forks to form the Peace. The lake includes three reaches , the Peace Reach (formerly the Peace Canyon), and the Parsnip and Finlay Reaches, which are the lowermost basins of those rivers, and covers a total area of 1,761 km (680 sq mi), being the largest lake in British Columbia and

384-856: The half-mile long Finlay Rapids and a further seven miles east is the Peace Pass , which separates the Muskwa Ranges and the Hart Ranges of the Canadian Rockies . The only river cutting completely through the Rockies, it nowadays flows into Dinosaur Lake, a reservoir for the Peace Canyon Dam . After the dams, the river flows east into Alberta and then continues north and east into the Peace-Athabasca Delta in Wood Buffalo National Park , at

408-550: The mouth of the Moberly River in 1794. According to Dane-zaa oral history , the Peace River is named for the settling of a conflict between the Dane-zaa and the Cree. The Cree traditionally lived south and east of the Upper Peace River region. Due to their trade with settlers, they had guns and they pushed the Dane-zaa northwest in the late 18th century. A peace treaty, negotiated in the late 1700s or early 1800s, stated that

432-624: The river banks, among them Beaver Ranch 163 , John D'Or Prairie 215 , Fox Lake 162 , Peace Point 222 and Devil's Gate 220 . Tributaries of the Peace River include: Dane-zaa people The Dane-zaa (ᑕᓀᖚ, also spelled Dunne-za , or Tsattine ) are an Athabaskan-speaking group of First Nations people. Their traditional territory is around the Peace River in Alberta and British Columbia , Canada. Today, about 1,600 Dane-zaa reside in British Columbia and an estimated half of them speak

456-624: The river's shore. The last cargo vessel was the Watson's Lake , retired in 1952. Hydroelectric development began on the Peace River in 1968 and continues to be an important source of renewable energy for British Columbia's main electricity provider, BC Hydro . The river’s first dam, the W. A. C. Bennett Dam , was completed in 1968 and is British Columbia's largest dam and the third-largest hydroelectric facility in Canada. It supplies over 30% of British Columbia's total power demand. Engineers took advantage of

480-552: The seventh largest reservoir (by volume) in the world. The reservoir is fed by the Finlay , Omineca , Ingenika , Ospika , Parsnip , Manson , Nation and Nabesche Rivers and by Clearwater Creek, Carbon Creek, and other smaller creeks. Several provincial parks are maintained on the shore of the lake, including Muscovite Lakes Provincial Park , Butler Ridge Provincial Park , Heather-Dina Lakes Provincial Park and Ed Bird-Estella Provincial Park . The following rivers empty into

504-552: The teachings and songs of Dreamers, who first predicted the coming of the Europeans. The last Dreamer, Charlie Yahey, died in 1976. The Dane-zaa of Fort St John took an adhesion to Treaty 8 in 1900. Today they continue to have a strong cultural and economic presence in the North Peace area. In collaboration with the elders of the Doig River First Nation, Robin and Jillian Ridington wrote Where Happiness Dwells: A History of

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528-518: The upper Peace River (called Saaghii Naachii , meaning "big river," by them). Archaeological evidence at Charlie Lake Cave establishes that the area of Charlie Lake north of Fort St John has been continuously occupied for 10,500 years by varying cultures of indigenous peoples . In the late 18th century, European-Canadians opened the Peace River area to fur trading . Scot-Canadian explorer Alexander Mackenzie (explorer) established Rocky Mountain Fort at

552-957: The western end of Lake Athabasca. Water from the delta flows into the Slave River east of Peace Point and reaches the Arctic Ocean via the Great Slave Lake and Mackenzie River . Communities located directly on the river include: Many provincial parks and wildland reserves are established on the river, such as Butler Ridge Provincial Park , Taylor Landing Provincial Park , Beatton River Provincial Park , Peace River Corridor Provincial Park in British Columbia and Dunvegan Provincial Park , Dunvegan West Wildland Provincial Park , Peace River Wildland Provincial Park , Greene Valley Provincial Park , Notikewin Provincial Park , Wood Buffalo National Park in Alberta. A few Indian reserves are also on

576-469: Was researching the productivity of wheat and other grain crops near Dawson Creek . The Peace River region is also an important centre of oil and natural gas production. There are also pulp and paper plants along the river in Alberta and British Columbia. The Peace River has two navigable sections, separated by the Vermilion Chutes , near Fort Vermilion . The first steam-powered vessel to navigate

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