The Peribonka River springs a short distance west of the Otish Mountains in a swampy area on the granite and muskeg of the Canadian Shield.

The Péribonka river takes its source from an unidentified small lake, on the southwest side of the Otish Mountains.

[3] The major tributaries of the Peribonka are (in upstream order): Historically the Innu indigenous people lived in this area and traveled the river by canoe.

In October of that year, after investigating the state of English positions on Hudson Bay, Louis Jolliet returned to Quebec City via this route and called it Périboca in his manuscript.

[4] The classic novel Maria Chapdelaine by French writer Louis Hémon is set on the shores of the Peribonka River.

Certainly known to the Amerindians, who had to fish and hunt in the region, the Péribonka river was mentioned for the first time in an official document, the Mission Register, on April 16, 1679.

On that day, "juxtà fluvium Perib8ka ad lacum Peok8agami ”(near the Péribonka river at Lac Saint-Jean), Father François de Crespieul baptizes two children.

In October of the same year, after investigating the state of the English positions at Hudson Bay, Louis Jolliet returned to Quebec on this route.

This designation remains on the map of Guillaume Delisle (1703), but turns into Periboaka on that of Father Laure (1731) and in Periboac on that of Nicolas Bellin (1755).

The French writer Louis Hémon (1880-1913) mentions the Péribonka river several times in his novel Maria Chapdelaine, written shortly before his death and published in 1916.

[6] The toponym "Rivière Péribonka" was formalized on December 18, 1986, at the Place Names Bank of the Commission de toponymie du Québec.