Assiniboine River
| Assiniboine River | |
 A view of the Assiniboine River looking southeast from the Maryland Bridge in Winnipeg
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| Country | Canada |
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| Provinces | Saskatchewan, Manitoba |
| Part of | Red River drainage basin |
| Source | Windy Lake east of Kelvington |
| - location | Saskatchewan |
| - elevation | 640 m (2,100 ft) |
| - coordinates | 52°18′15″N 103°06′01″W / 52.30417°N 103.10028°W |
| Mouth | Red River of the North |
| - location | The Forks in Winnipeg, Manitoba |
| - elevation | 230 m (755 ft) |
| - coordinates | 49°53′09″N 97°07′44″W / 49.88583°N 97.12889°WCoordinates: 49°53′09″N 97°07′44″W / 49.88583°N 97.12889°W |
| Length | 1,070 km (665 mi) |
| Basin | 182,000 km2 (70,271 sq mi) |
| Discharge | |
| - average | 45 m3/s (1,589 cu ft/s) |
 Red River drainage basin, with the Assiniboine River highlighted
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The Assiniboine River (/əˈsɪnᵻbɔɪn/) is a 1,070-kilometre (660 mi) river that runs through the prairies of Western Canada in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. It is a tributary of the Red River. The Assiniboine is a typical meandering river with a single main channel embanked within a flat, shallow valley in some places and a steep valley in others. Its main tributaries are the Qu'Appelle, Souris and Whitesand Rivers. For early history and exploration see Assiniboine River fur trade.
The river takes its name from the Assiniboine First Nation. Robert Douglas of the Geographical Board of Canada (1933) made several comments as to its origin: "The name commemorates the Assiniboine natives called by La Vérendrye in 1730 'Assiniboils' and by Governor Knight in 1715 of the Hudson's Bay Company 'stone Indians.' Assiniboine is the name of a First Nation and is derived from the Ojibwe words 'asin' a stone and 'bwaan' the Sioux, hence Stony Sioux name was possibly given because they used heated stones in cooking their food."
The Assiniboine River rises in eastern Saskatchewan east of the community of Kelvington on the upper prairie level above the Manitoba Escarpment. The Assiniboine River flows through three basic zones with different channel characteristics. Upstream of Brandon, the main stem of the river and its most important tributaries flow within a very large valley. The valley was cut by huge glacial melt water flows at the end of the last glaciation. The floor of this spillway valley provides a natural floodplain for the river and the valley provides a significant storage volume making the construction of the Shellmouth Dam near Russell both technically and economically viable. The major tributaries in this reach are the Qu’Appelle, Shell and Little Saskatchewan Rivers.
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