Indian River or Kaasda Héen, as known by the local Tlingit, is a roughly eight-mile long watershed

Drainage basin

A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...

 that flows through the community of Sitka on Baranof Island

Baranof Island

Baranof Island, also sometimes called Baranov Island, Shee or Sitka Island, is an island in the northern Alexander Archipelago in the Alaska Panhandle, in Alaska. The name Baranof was given in 1805 by Imperial Russian Navy captain U. F. Lisianski to honor Alexander Andreyevich Baranov...

 in the Alexander Archipelago

Alexander Archipelago

The Alexander Archipelago is a long archipelago, or group of islands, of North America off the southeastern coast of Alaska. It contains about 1,100 islands, which are the tops of the submerged coastal mountains that rise steeply from the Pacific Ocean. Deep channels and fjords separate the...

 of Southeast Alaska.

Indian River was named in 1826 by Russians colonizing the Sitka area as Reka Koloshenka. This was translated in 1883 to the English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 title used today.

Indian River is a large salmon

Salmon

Salmon is the common name for several species of fish in the family Salmonidae. Several other fish in the same family are called trout; the difference is often said to be that salmon migrate and trout are resident, but this distinction does not strictly hold true...

-spawning stream. The river terminates in the heart of Sitka National Historical Park

Sitka National Historical Park

Located approximately one–half mile from the Park, the Russian Bishop's House was constructed out of native spruce in 1842 by Finnish carpenters. It is one of only four surviving examples of Russian Colonial Style architecture in the Western Hemisphere...

 and passes the Alaska Raptor Center

Alaska Raptor Center

The Alaska Raptor Center is a raptor rehabilitation center in Sitka in the U.S. state of Alaska. Located on a 17–acre campus bordering the Tongass National Forest and the Indian River, its primary mission is the rehabilitation of sick and injured eagles, hawks, falcons, owls, and other birds...

. The river extends about five miles into Baranof Island before splitting into two branches. A trail follows the southern branch to a viewpoint of a 21 meter waterfall. The river carries a large volume of water relative to its watershed due the extremely high rainfall of the Baranof Island area.

Indian River played a vital role in the Battle of Sitka

Battle of Sitka

The Battle of Sitka was the last major armed conflict between Europeans and Alaska Natives, and was initiated in response to the destruction of a Russian trading post two years prior...

with the impenetrable Tlingit fort sitting just adjacent to the mouth of the river.