The Atchafalaya River The Atchafalaya River is a distributary of the Red River and Mississippi River section in part of the southern portion in central Louisiana. The Atchafalaya is a one hundred and thirty seven mile long distributary of the Mississippi and Red Rivers. The name "Atchafalaya" comes from the Choctaw language and translates to long river from hachcha, “river" and falaya, "long.” During the fifteenth century the Mississippi River and the Red River were separated. These two rivers…