. "The Ecorse River is an 18.8-mile-long (30.3 km) river in southern Michigan. Because of its small size, it is often identified as Ecorse Creek. It flows through the Downriver section of Metro Detroit, and is a tributary of the Detroit River. The early French settlers named it the Rivi\u00E8re aux \u00C9corces (\"bark river\"). The river was given this name because of a custom, of the local Native American tribe, of wrapping its dead in birch or elm bark, and burying them at the mouth of the river."@en . .