White River (Missouri River tributary)

The White River is a Missouri River tributary that flows 580 mi through the U.S. states of Nebraska and South Dakota. The name stems from the water's white-gray color, a function of eroded sand, clay, and volcanic ash carried by the river from its source near the Badlands. Draining a basin of about 10200 mi2, about 8500 sqmi of which is in South Dakota, the stream flows through a region of sparsely populated hills, plateaus, and badlands. The White River rises in northwestern Nebraska, in the Pine Ridge escarpment north of Harrison, at an elevation of 4861 ft above sea level. It flows southeast then northeast past Fort Robinson and north of Crawford. It crosses into southwestern South Dakota and flows north across the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, then northeast, receiving Wounded Knee Creek and flowing between units of Badlands National Park. It flows east-northeast and southeast at the northern edge of the reservation, forming the northern boundary of the reservation and the southern boundary of Buffalo Gap National Grassland. It receives the Little White River about 15 mi south of Murdo, and flows east to join the Missouri in Lake Francis Case about 15 mi southwest of Chamberlain.

The river sometimes has no surface flow due to the dry climate surrounding its badlands and prairie basin, though thunderstorms can cause brief intense flow. The river near Chamberlain flows year-round. As of 2001, the White River had generally good-quality water.