| Feature Type: | River - Watercourse of variable size, which has tributaries and flows into a body of water or a larger watercourse. |
| Status: | Official |
| Name Authority: | BC Geographical Names Office |
| Relative Location: | Flows S into Alice Arm, Observatory Inlet, Cassiar Land District |
| Latitude-Longitude: | 55°28'46"N, 129°28'51"W at the approximate mouth of this feature. |
| Datum: | WGS84 |
| NTS Map: | 103P/6 |
| Related Maps: |
103P/11 103P/12 103P/6 |
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Origin Notes and History:
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"Kitsault River (not Kitzault, Kitzaulte, Gitzault, Chigitsoult, nor Kitsaulte)" adopted June 1922, as labelled on BC map 1H, 1917. Confirmed 6 August 1953 on 103 P. Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office |
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Clearwater Creek identified in the 1930 BC Gazetteer, as 4 mile long tributary, since determined to be the main channel of Kitsault River. Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office |
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An Indigenous name meaning "on the inside" (the inlet on the inside). c1922 notation on BC name card. Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office |
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The name, which should more properly have been spelt " Kitsautl " (ending in a lateral fricative) is the anglicized form of "Gits'oohl", a Nisga'a name meaning "at the back" designating Alice Arm, located at the back of a strip of land separating it from the Nass River [gi- /locative prefix; ts'oohl/back of ] (M-L Tarpent, NW Languages Newsletter, vol 4, No. 2, p.4) Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office |