Salt River (Arizona)

The Salt Lake in Arizona

The Salt River ( Pima O'Odham: On'k Akimel ) is a tributary of the Gila River ( Pima O'Odham: Keli Akimel or simply Akimel in Quechan: Haa Siil ) with a length of 322 km in the central Arizona.

It arises in the east of the Gila County at the confluence of the White River to the Black River at Mogollon Rim and Natanes plateau. It forms the border between the Apache Indian Reservation in the north and the San Carlos Indian Reservation in the south. It flows northwest through the Salt River Canyon, then south-west by the Tonto National Forest. It flows through several reservoirs: (formed by Roosevelt Dam ), Apache Lake ( Horse Mesa Dam ), Canyon Lake ( Mormon Flat Dam ) and the Saguaro Lake ( Stewart Mountain Dam ) Theodore Roosevelt Lake. Near Fountain Hills flows of the Verde River in the river. In Mesa there are many weirs, which distribute the water in many channels. In Tempe, it flows through the Tempe Town Lake. The channels are total of 1,609 km.

The Salt River was at the core of the settlement area of the prehistoric Hohokam culture between about the years 300 and 1500. The Hohokam built irrigation channels and initiated tributaries of the Salt River to within their river bed to improve soil quality by sediments. Along the Salt River and the Gila River were two subgroups of the Akimel O'Odham (often referred to as flow - Pima ) who took their name from the rivers on which their settlements were: the Akimel O'Odham On'k ( ' Salt River People ' ) and Keli Akimel O'Odham ( ' Gila River People ').