High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Yellow River is a 62.3-mile-long (100.3 km)tributary of the Kankakee River in northern Indiana in the United States. Via the Kankakee and Illinois rivers, it is part of the watershed of the Mississippi River, draining an area of 427 square miles (1,110 km2). The river`s name possibly derives from a translation of the Shawnee name for the river, We-thau-ka-mik, meaning "yellow waters", a description perhaps owing to the presence of sand in the riverbed.