The Kootenay is a major river in southeastern British Columbia, Canada, and northern Montana and Idaho in the United States. It is one of the uppermost major tributaries of the Columbia River, the largest North American river that empties into the Pacific Ocean. The Kootenay River runs 781 kilometres from its headwaters in the Kootenay Ranges of the Canadian Rockies, flowing from British Columbia's East Kootenay region into northwestern Montana, then west into the northernmost Idaho Panhandle and returning to British Columbia in the West Kootenay region, where it joins the Columbia at Castlegar. Fed mainly by glaciers and snow melt, the river drains a rugged, sparsely populated region of more than 50,000 km2 ; over 70 percent of the basin is in Canada. From its highest headwaters to its confluence with the Columbia River, the Kootenay falls more than 2,000 metres in elevation. Above its confluence with the Columbia, the Kootenay is comparable in terms of length, drainage area and volume, but has a steeper gradient and is characterized by larger falls and rapids. Part of the lower Kootenay forms Kootenay Lake, one of the biggest natural lakes in British Columbia. The Ktunaxa were the first people to live along the Kootenay River. For hundreds of years, they hunted and fished on the river, quite isolated from neighboring indigenous groups. In the 19th century, a Canadian explorer, David Thompson, became the first recorded European to reach the Kootenay and established trading posts throughout the region. A gold rush on the Kootenay and later silver and galena strikes in its western basins in the late 19th century drew thousands of miners and settlers to the region, who soon were followed by the arrival of railroads and steamboats. The Doukhobors, a Russian religious sect, immigrated and established a short-lived colony, Brilliant, at the Kootenay's mouth; subsequently dispersing into many settlements, they contributed to the region's timber and agricultural industries. As with many Pacific Northwest rivers, many dams were built on the Kootenay in the 20th century to generate hydroelectricity, and protect against floods and droughts. Today, over 150 kilometres of the river have been impounded behind five dams, and a sixth controls the level of Kootenay Lake.
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