The handle “Yellowstone” comes from history’s somewhat fuzzy recollection of the name the first known white intruders gave this waterway. For whatever reason, the national park took on the river’s title. In the 1740's French Canadian trappers made a foray into what is now Montana and traveled an unknown distance up the lower Yellowstone. Noticing yellow colored stones in and along the river channel, they called it R. des Roche Jaune (spelling as appearing on 1790's maps) or in English “River of the Yellow Rock.” William Clark’s journal entries in 1806 referred to it as “rochejaune.” According to Crow Tribal elder and historian Joe Medicine Crow, long before the whites decided on a name, the Crow Indians called it “Elk River,” as they often hunted the majestic animal along the river’s banks

UM Geography Department