 When Anthony Henday passed through the region in the 1750s, he did not mention a river with this name.But by 1793 Peter Fidler mentions arriving at the "Battle or Fighting River", likely so named because of the beginning of a period of rivalry between the Iron Confederacy (Cree and Assiniboine) and the Blackfoot Confederacy.The headwaters of Battle River is Battle Lake in west-central Alberta, east of Winfield.