Editing Mississippi River (section)

===Native Americans===
{{See also|Woodland period|Hopewell tradition|Mississippian culture|Winona (legend)}}
The area of the Mississippi River basin was first [[Prehistoric migration and settlement of the Americas from Asia|settled]] by [[hunting and gathering]] [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American peoples]] and is considered one of the few independent centers of [[Domestication of plants|plant domestication]] in human history.<ref>{{cite journal |first1=P.J. |last1=Richerson |first2=R. |last2=Boyd |first3=R.L. |last3=Bettinger |title=Was Agriculture Impossible During the Pleistocene but Mandatory during the Holocene? A Climate Change Hypothesis |journal=American Antiquity |volume=66 |issue=3 |pages=387–411 |year=2001 |doi=10.2307/2694241 |jstor=2694241 |s2cid=163474968}}</ref> Evidence of early [[Plant cultivation|cultivation]] of [[sunflower]], a [[Chenopodium berlandieri|goosefoot]], a [[Iva annua|marsh elder]] and an indigenous [[squash (plant)|squash]] dates to the [[4th millennium BC]]. The lifestyle gradually became more settled after around 1000&nbsp;BC during what is now called the [[Woodland period]], with increasing evidence of shelter construction, [[Ceramics of indigenous peoples of the Americas|pottery]], [[weaving]] and other practices.

A network of trade routes referred to as the [[Hopewell tradition|Hopewell interaction sphere]] was active along the waterways between about 200 and 500 AD, spreading common cultural practices over the entire area between the Gulf of Mexico and the Great Lakes. A period of more isolated communities followed, and agriculture introduced from [[Mesoamerica]] based on the [[Three Sisters (agriculture)|Three Sisters]] (maize, [[beans]] and squash) gradually came to dominate. After around 800 AD there arose an advanced agricultural society today referred to as the [[Mississippian culture]], with evidence of highly [[Social stratification|stratified]] [[complex society|complex]] [[chiefdom]]s and large [[human settlement|population centers]].

The most prominent of these, now called [[Cahokia]], was occupied between about 600 and 1400 AD<ref>{{cite web |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050208230201/http://www.sacredland.org/historical_sites_pages/miss_mounds.html |archive-date=February 8, 2005 |url=http://www.sacredland.org/historical_sites_pages/miss_mounds.html |publisher=Sacredland.org |title=Mississippian Mounds |work=Sacred Land Film Project}}</ref> and at its peak numbered between 8,000 and 40,000 inhabitants, larger than London, England of that time. At the time of first contact with Europeans, Cahokia and many other Mississippian cities had dispersed, and [[archaeological]] finds attest to increased social stress.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Pauketat |first=Timothy R. |year=2003 |title=Resettled Farmers and the Making of a Mississippian Polity |journal=American Antiquity |volume=68 |issue=1 |pages=39–66 |doi=10.2307/3557032 |jstor=3557032 |s2cid=163856087}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Pauketat |first=Timothy R. |year=1998 |title=Refiguring the Archaeology of Greater Cahokia |journal=Journal of Archaeological Research |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=45–89 |doi=10.1023/A:1022839329522 |s2cid=195219118}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Sullivan |first=Lynne P. |title=Archaeology of the Appalachian highlands |publisher=University of Tennessee Press |year=2001 |isbn=1-57233-142-9 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/archaeologyofapp0000unse |access-date=December 17, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200102045548/https://archive.org/details/archaeologyofapp0000unse |archive-date=January 2, 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Modern American Indian nations inhabiting the Mississippi basin include [[Cheyenne]], [[Sioux]], [[Ojibwe]], [[Potawatomi]], [[Ho-Chunk]], [[Meskwaki]], [[Kickapoo people|Kickapoo]], [[Tamaroa (tribe)|Tamaroa]], [[Moingwena]], [[Quapaw]] and [[Chickasaw]].

The word ''Mississippi'' itself comes from ''Messipi'', the French rendering of the [[Ojibwe language|Anishinaabe]] (Ojibwe or Algonquin) name for the river, ''Misi-ziibi'' (Great River).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.freelang.net/dictionary/ojibwe.html |title=Freelang Ojibwe Dictionary |access-date=September 22, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121011201846/http://www.freelang.net/dictionary/ojibwe.php |archive-date=October 11, 2012 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.yourdictionary.com/ahd/m/m0343500.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070220085858/http://www.yourdictionary.com/ahd/m/m0343500.html |archive-date=February 20, 2007 |title=Mississippi |access-date=March 6, 2007 |work=[[American Heritage Dictionary]] |publisher=Yourdictionary.com}}</ref> The [[Ojibwe]] called Lake Itasca ''Omashkoozo-zaaga'igan'' (Elk Lake) and the river flowing out of it ''Omashkoozo-ziibi'' (Elk River). After flowing into [[Lake Bemidji]], the Ojibwe called the river ''Bemijigamaag-ziibi'' (River from the Traversing Lake). After flowing into [[Cass Lake (Minnesota)|Cass Lake]], the name of the river changes to ''Gaa-miskwaawaakokaag-ziibi'' (Red Cedar River) and then out of [[Lake Winnibigoshish]] as ''Wiinibiigoonzhish-ziibi'' (Miserable Wretched Dirty Water River), ''Gichi-ziibi'' (Big River) after the confluence with the [[Leech Lake River]], then finally as ''Misi-ziibi'' (Great River) after the confluence with the [[Crow Wing River]].<ref>[[Joseph Gilfillan|Gilfillan, Joseph A.]], "Minnesota Geographical Names Derived from the Chippewa Language" in ''The Geological and Natural History Survey of Minnesota: The Fifteenth Annual Report for the Year 1886'' (St. Paul: Pioneer Press Company, 1887)</ref> After the expeditions by [[Giacomo Beltrami]] and [[Henry Schoolcraft]], the longest stream above the juncture of the Crow Wing River and ''Gichi-ziibi'' was named "Mississippi River". The [[Mississippi River Band of Chippewa Indians]], known as the ''Gichi-ziibiwininiwag'', are named after the stretch of the Mississippi River known as the ''Gichi-ziibi''. The [[Cheyenne]], one of the earliest inhabitants of the upper Mississippi River, called it the ''Máʼxe-éʼometaaʼe'' (Big Greasy River) in the [[Cheyenne language]]. The [[Arapaho language|Arapaho]] name for the river is ''Beesniicíe''.<ref>{{cite web |title=English-Arapaho dictionary |access-date=May 23, 2012 |url=http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/~arapaho/english_arapaho.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120611032359/http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/~arapaho/english_arapaho.html |archive-date=June 11, 2012 |url-status=live}}</ref> The [[Pawnee language|Pawnee]] name is ''Kickaátit''.<ref>{{cite web |title=AISRI Dictionary Database Search—prototype version. "River", Southband Pawnee |work=American Indian Studies Research Institute |access-date=May 26, 2012 |url=http://zia.aisri.indiana.edu/~dictsearch/cgi-bin/testengltoxsrchNP.pl?host=zia&pass=&hasfont=0&srchlang=English&srchstring=river&database=south&srchtype=AND&sortlang=English&sndformat=ra&maxhits=200&find=Run_Search |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130117053713/http://zia.aisri.indiana.edu/~dictsearch/cgi-bin/testengltoxsrchNP.pl?host=zia&pass=&hasfont=0&srchlang=English&srchstring=river&database=south&srchtype=AND&sortlang=English&sndformat=ra&maxhits=200&find=Run_Search |archive-date=January 17, 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

The Mississippi was spelled {{not a typo|Mississipi or Missisipi}} during French Louisiana and was also known as the Rivière Saint-Louis.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8490378j |title=Carte de la Louisiane, cours du Mississipi et pais voisins... / par Nicolas Bellin... ; Dheulland sculpsit |first1=Jacques-Nicolas (1703–1772) Cartographe |last1=Bellin |first2=Guillaume (17 ?-177) Graveur |last2=Dheulland |first3=Pierre-François-Xavier de (1682–1761) Auteur du texte |last3=Charlevoix |date=January 1, 1744 |access-date=August 19, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161115020954/http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8490378j |archive-date=November 15, 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b84912758 |title=Carte de la Louisiane et du cours du Mississipi. 100 lieues françoises [= 0m. 092 ; 1 : 4.830.000 environ]. Dressé sur un grand nombre de mémoires entre autres sur ceux de M. Le Maire / par Guillaume Delisle de l'Académie Royale des Sciences |first=Guillaume (1675–1726) Auteur du texte |last=Delisle |date=January 1, 1718 |access-date=August 19, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161115021003/http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b84912758 |archive-date=November 15, 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b53065061q |title=Le cours du Mississipi ou de St Louis, fameuse rivière... aux environs de laquelle se trouve le pays appellé Louisiane / dressée... par N. de Fer |first=Nicolas de (1647?–1720) Cartographe |last=Fer |date=January 1, 1718 |access-date=August 19, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161115014452/http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b53065061q |archive-date=November 15, 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref>