Misi-ziibi — The Great River

The word "Mississippi" comes from the Ojibwe name "Misi-ziibi," meaning simply "Great River", and it earns the title. The river drains roughly 41% of the contiguous United States, collecting water from 31 states and two Canadian provinces before emptying into the Gulf of Mexico. Long before European explorers arrived, the lower Mississippi was home to the Natchez people. The river served as a vital highway for dozens of nations — among them the Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Quapaw — who relied on it for trade, fishing, and communication for thousands of years before contact. Today the Mississippi remains one of the busiest commercial waterways in the world, carrying more agricultural and industrial cargo than any other river system in North America.