I believe the Mississippi river is the greatest river in the world. It has been called the “Father of Waters” by Native Americans, Sidon by Nephites and possibly Pishon or Gihon in the Old Testament. (I explain below)
The River Sidon is the most important river in the Book of Mormon. It is important for its food, water, defense, travel, and importance to develop cities close by. In comparison, that is the value today of the Mississippi River. We believe they are one in the same river.
The River Sidon isn’t mentioned until 87 BC in Alma Chapter 2. That makes sense. We believe Lehi landed near Tallahassee Florida in c.589 BC, Nephi probably escaped into the mountains using the Chattahoochee River and settled near Chattanooga, Tennessee. Mosiah then joined the Mulekites near Nauvoo, Illinois on the Mississippi River. c. 130 BC. See complete Book of Mormon Timeline here:
From the Topical Guide- Sidon, River—most prominent river in Nephite territory
- hill Amnihu is on east of Sidon, Alma 2:15.
- Lamanites camp on west of Sidon, Alma 2:34.
- many are baptized in waters of Sidon, Alma 4:4.
- wilderness at Sidon, Alma 22:29.
- See also River
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/triple-index/sidon-river?lang=eng
Name Sidon came from Mulekites
“In The Lost City of Zarahemla, I discussed the origin of the name and its relevance to Book of Mormon geography. I concluded that the Nephites inherited the name from the Mulekites, who in turn were influenced by the Phoenicians who presumably brought them to America. The name Sidon recognizes the river for its properties as a source of food, and also for its utility as a border, the same way the ancient city of Sidon was used to mark a border in the Old Testament. I proposed that references to the river Sidon in the Book of Mormon amount to references to the river border, particularly in connection with the narrow strip of wilderness.
I also pointed out that the phrase “head of Sidon” cannot mean the source, but instead means the confluence of rivers. [Map below] illustrates where the Mississippi joins the Missouri and Ohio Rivers. The Illinois River joins just north of the Missouri River. Somewhere in that area, or perhaps the entire section from the Missouri to the Ohio River, is the head of Sidon.” Moroni’s America Chapter 24. For a discussion on the direction the River Sidon flowed, and why we feel the Mississippi is indeed the River Sidon, see my blog here:https://www.bofm.blog/the-mississippi-is-the-river-sidon/
Etymology (Sidon)
Since the Book of Mormon river SIDON passed through ZARAHEMLA, a city that was first settled by Mulekites, it is likely that this GN is of Mulekite origin. If it does derive from the biblical name for the Phoenician city SIDON (Hebrew ṣidon[1] Phoenician ṣdn, EGYPTIAN ddwn3, ASSYRIAN ṣiduna), as most commentaries suggest, this may denote the presence of Phoenician influence among the Mulekites. HALOT notes that the “etymology [of the Phoenician GN Sidon] is not absolutely certain.”[2] DNWSI gives “unknown meaning” for ṣdn, and “uncert[ain] meaning” for ṣd, and has no entry for ṣwd. It is possible that it may come from HEBREW ṣwd, to catch, hunt, and if it does, –ôn may be the fairly common nominalizing ending. Source.
Excerpted from: Abarim Publications’ Biblical Dictionary צוד
The verb צוד (sud) means to hunt or fish, or more general: to get meat rather than veggies, and by working for it in the wild rather than purchasing it at a store. This verb obviously has a very strong cognitive connotation in the Bible, which would concern an active pursuit of problems and their solutions, rather than learning from whatever happens (veggies) or absorbing other people’s theories at some school (food store)
Noun ציד (sayid) means a hunting or game. Noun ציד (sayyad) means hunter. Noun מצד (mesad) means fastness or stronghold (a typically defensive structure). Noun מצוד (masod) may mean siege works or hunting implement (like a net). Likewise, the nouns מצודה (mesoda) and מצודה (mesuda) mean net, fastness or stronghold.
Both nouns ציד (sayid) and צידה (seda) mean provisions or food. The denominative verb ציד (sid) means to supply oneself with food.
Sidon Definition
by Joshua J. Mark
published on 02 September 2009
Sidon is the Greek name (meaning ‘fishery’) for the ancient Phoenician port city of Sidonia (also known as Saida) in what is, today, Lebannon (located about 25 miles south of Beirut). Along with the city of Tyre, Sidon was the most powerful city-state of ancient Phoenicia and first manufactured the purple dye which made Tyre famous and was so rare and expensive that the color purple became synonymous with royalty. The area of Sidon was inhabited as early as 4,000 BCE and Homer, in the 8th century, notes the skill of the Sidonians in producing glass. Glass production made Sidon both rich and famous and the city was known for being very cosmopolitan and ‘progressive’. The Princess Jezebel, who later would become Queen of Israel (as related in the biblical Books of I and II Kings) was the daughter of the King of Sidon, Ethbaal in the 9th century BCE, and married King Ahab of Israel to cement ties between the two kingdoms. The city is mentioned a number of times throughout the Bible and both Jesus and St. Paul are reported to have made visits there. Sidon is considered the ‘seat’ of the Phoenician Civilization in that most of the ships which would ply the seas and spread Phoenician culture were launched from this city’s port. Sidon was overthrown during the conquest of Phoenicia by Alexander the Great in 332 BCE and, like the rest of the fractured Phoenician civilization, was eventually absorbed by Rome and, finally, taken by the Arab Muslims. Source
Mississippi 3- River Divisions
The importance of the Mississippi river in the history of the Native Americans goes without saying. It could be called three different rivers as explained below and it could be the four rivers described in Genesis flowing out of Eden. (More below)
The Mississippi River can be divided into three sections: the Upper Mississippi, the river from its headwaters to the confluence with the Missouri River; the Middle Mississippi, which is downriver from the Missouri to the Ohio River; and the Lower Mississippi, which flows from the Ohio to the Gulf of Mexico. Source
Named by Algonkian-speaking Indians, Mississippi can be translated as “Father of Waters.” The river, the largest in North America, drains 31 states and 2 Canadian provinces, and runs 2,350 miles from its source to the Gulf of Mexico. The Mississippi River is truly one of the great forces that has shaped the United States into the country it is today. Although its role has changed over the past few centuries, the Mississippi has always been important to those who lived along its banks. Indigenous peoples fished its waters and depended on the waterway for transportation. Explorers and traders traveled the river in hopes of conquering more land and obtaining wealth for their countries. Settlers moved close to take advantage of the rich farmland the river provided. All of these pursuits resulted in a trade industry that brought about a social and economic transformation, when news and goods made their way downriver and livelihoods were provided. In fact, the Mississippi River’s economic and strategic value was so important that when Ulysses S. Grant won the siege of Vicksburg and control of the river during the Civil War, the Confederacy was dealt a serious blow. Today, although still used to transport goods, the river has taken on yet another identity: that of entertainer. Literature, pleasure boats, and floating casinos all showcase a new dimension of this magnificent river. https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/Products/9780738507453
THE NAMING OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER BY MURIEL H. WRIGHT
Chronicles of Oklahoma Volume 6, No. 4 December, 1928 Page 529-530
While it is generally accepted that “Mississippi” is an Indian word meaning “the Father of Waters,” yet one seldom hears a discussion with reference to its real meaning nor to which Indian language it belongs, there being more than two hundred and fifty tribes or bands of Indians living in the United States, each having its own language or dialect.
There is a story among the Choctaws, who lived in the Lower Mississippi country before the tribe came to Oklahoma, that they and their kinsmen, the Chickasaws, migrated from a far western country long, long ago. When their leaders, the wise prophets of the two tribes, reached the great river, in the van of the people, they contemplated its broad waters and exclaimed, “Misha sipokni!” Misha in Choctaw means “beyond,” with the idea of far beyond; and sipokni means “age,” conveying the idea of something ancient. Therefore the words of the Choctaw and the Chickasaw prophets meant in substance, “Here is a river that is beyond all age,” or “We have come to the most ancient of rivers.”1
Editors Note: In the Bible what are the most ancient rivers called? In the Topical guide we read under RIVER:
“river running out of Eden waters garden, parts into four heads—Pison, Gihon, Hiddekel, Euphrates, Moses 3:10–14 (Abr. 5:10).”
When I type in a google search for, Where is the Garden of Eden? This is the first option:
Mesopotamia
The Garden of Eden is considered to be mythological by many scholars. [Wow this is how some of the same scholars feel about the Book of Mormon]. Among those who consider it to have been real, there have been various suggestions for its location: at the head of the Persian Gulf, in southern Mesopotamia (now Iraq) where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers run into the sea; and in Armenia.
Most Bible commentaries state that the site of the Garden of Eden was in the Middle East, situated somewhere near where the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers are today. This is based on the description given in Genesis 2:8–14: The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden. . . . Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads. The name of the first is Pishon . . . . The name of the second river is Gihon. . . . The name of the third river is Hiddekel [Tigris]. ;. . . The fourth river is the Euphrates.
Give these four rivers some thought as the great rivers spoken of in Genesis where the Garden of Eden happened in North America. It would make sense that the 4 Ancient Rivers would be located in North America. Could the Great Mississippi River of today be the same river called Pishon of the Old Testament and the River Sidon in the Book of Mormon? That is some food for thought don’t you think? The Map below seems logical as these ancient rivers going out of Eden.. See blog here
Chronicles of Oklahoma continued. “In the earliest French records, the name was written “Malabouchi,”’ as given by the Gulf Coast Indians. Du Pratz, one of the early French writers in this country, attempted to explain the Indian name, Mechasipi, as a contraction of the words, Meact Chassipi, meaning “the ancient father of waters.”2
The great river was called “Mississippi,” by the Indians of the Northwest when that region was first visited by La Salle and Marquette in the seventeenth century, the source of the river being found in the country of the Algonquian stock, of which the Chippewa is the most important tribe. Mississippi, in the language of the Chippewa, is derived from the two words missi meaning “large,” and sippi meaning ‘flowing water,” which taken together literally mean “large river.”3
It is interesting to note that missi is the same as micco of the Creeks, meaning “great” as an adjective and “chief” as a noun. Michi of Michigan is the same word, and, also, the massa of Massachusetts is of like derivation.
The name would be more accurately spelled “Missisippi” in French, or “Misisipi” in Spanish, both being pronounced Meeseeseepee which is near the sound of the Indian words. The Spaniards of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries knew of the river as the “Rio del Espiritu Santo,” or the River of the Holy Ghost. They also called it the “Rio Grande del Florida,” or more simply the “Rio Grande.”
By the early French, it was given the name of “La Palisade,” on account of the large cottonwood trees that grew in abundance on the lower passes of the river. These trees were used by both the Indians and the French trappers for pirogues or dug-out canoes in this region, since the Lower Mississippi and its branches were dangerous for lighter craft on account of huge logs and snags that were washed down-stream during high water and lodged in the channels of the rivers. Then, too, birch trees did not grow in southern latitudes, so that birch bark canoes were left for use in the lakes and clear waters of the country in the North.
After the exploring expedition of La Salle, down the Mississippi, the French sometimes called the river, “the Colbert,” in honor of the minister and the favorite of Louis XIV. Jean Baptiste Colbert’s name was uppermost in the minds of the French people, for it was his genius that organized the finances of their country at that time, though his most lasting achievement was the establishment of the French marine. In connection with this latter work, James Thomson Shotwell, Professor of History in Columbia University, New York City, said in a biographical sketch of Colbert:
“Letters exist written by Colbert to the judges requiring them to sentence to the oar as many criminals as possible, including all those who had been condemned to death; and the convict once chained to the bench, the expiration of his sentence was seldom allowed to bring him release. Mendicants also, against whom no crime had been proved, contraband dealers, those who had been engaged in insurrections, and others immeasurably superior to the criminal class, nay innocent men—Turkish, Russian and negro slaves, and poor Iroquois Indians, whom the Canadians were ordered to entrap—were pressed into that terrible service. By these means the benches of the galleys were filled, and Colbert took no thought of the long unrelieved agony borne by those who filled them.”
After 1699, when D’Iberville was locating the first French colonies in the Lower Mississippi region, the river was called “Saint Louis,” in honor of the French King. Nevertheless, all its European names were forgotten at last, and the Indian name, “Mississippi,” given the great river in the dim ages of the past, remained for us today.
1 “A History of the Choctaw, Chickasaw and Natchez Indians,” by H. B. Cushman, pp. 62-4.
2 Much of the material in this article was kindly submitted by Dr. Dunbar Rowland, Director, Department of Archives and History of the State of Mississippi, Jackson, Miss.
3 Information obtained through J. N. B. Hewitt, Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology, Washington, D. C.
US State Names meaning in Native American. The People: Native American Legacy
Alabama: From the Alibamu, tribe of Indians, members of the Creek Confederacy. The name may have come from words in the Choctaw language, “Alba ayamute” meaning “I clear the thicket.”
Alaska: From the Aleut word “Alakshak”, meaning “peninsula”; used by the aleuts in referring to the part of the mainland that is now known as the Alaskan peninsula.
Arizona: Not yet really proved, but possibly from Papago Indian words for “small springs,” which the Spanish fitted to their own pronunciation.
Arkansas: From local Indians, The Quapaws, meaning “downstream people”. Called arkansa by the French.
Connecticut: From the Indian expression “quinnitukg-ut”, meaning “at the long tidal river.”
Hawaii: Possibly from “Havaiki” or “Hawaiki,” which according to legend was the name of the original homeland of the Polynesians.
Idaho: The New Book of Knowledge 1983 states: “According to the Idaho Blue Book, a settler corned the name and proposed it for the U.S. Territory created in 1861; it was rejected in favor of “Colorado” for that territory, but it became popular and was given to the territory (Idaho) created in 1863.”
In the book, “How we Name our States” Pauline Arnold, 1965, says that the word might be derived from the following:
Comanche “Idahi”
Shoshone “ee-dah-how” which means something like
“Good Morning”
Salmon River Tribe of Indians “Ida” means salmon and “ho” means tribe so we might be saying “Salmon eaters”.
Illinois: From the Indian word “ilhiniwek” or “illiniwek”. “Illini” meant “man” and the ending made the word plural. The French changed the word to illinois.
Indiana: From the word “Indian” plus the “a” ending used in many geographical names.
Iowa: From a Dakota Indian word: the name had many different spellings until it became “Ioway” and the “Iowa”.
Kansas: From “Kansa”, the name of a tribe of Indians who once lived in the area; first applied to the river, then to the state.
Kentucky: Probably related to the Iroquois Indian word “Kenta” — “level” or “Meadow-land” referring to the level land in the south central part of the state.
Massachusetts: From Massachuset Indians, who lived around the Blue hills near Boston, meaning “about the big hill”.
Michigan: Chippewa – “Michigama” meaning “Large lake” or “big water”.
Minnesota: Dakota – “Minisota” meaning “White water”.
Mississippi: Indian word meaning “big river”. (Choctaw meaning “Great water” or “Father of Waters”.)
Missouri: Indian mis meaning “big”. “Owners of big canoes”.
Nebraska: Oto Indians “Nebrathka” meaning flat water.
New Mexico: Named after an Aztec god named “Mertili”.
Ohio: Iroquois – “Oheo” meaning “beautiful”.
Oklahoma: Chocraw – “Oklahummaa” or “Oklahomma” meaning “red people”.
South & North Dakota: “Dahkota” meaning allies or friends — tribes who joined together in friendship.
Tennessee: Cherokee village “Tanasi” meaning “unknown”.
Texas: Caddo Indians – “Techas” meaning allies or friends.
Utah: Ute Indians called themselves “Yuta” meaning people who live high in the mountains”
Wisconsin: “Wishkonsing” — place of the beaver.
Wyoming: From Indian words meaning “On the Great Plain.”
Source: Department of Cultural Affairs- Nevada State Library and Archives
