The state of Mississippi's history goes back beyond American statehood to ancient Native American times.

At the end of the last Ice Age Native American or Paleo-Indians appeared in what today is the South. Paleo Indians in the South were hunter-gatherers who pursued the mega fauna that became extinct following the end of the Pleistocene age. After thousands of years, the Paleo Indians developed a rich agricultural society. Archeologists called these people the Mississippians of the Mississippian culture.

Descendant Native American tribes include the Chickasaw and Choctaw. Other tribes who inhabited the territory of Mississippi (and whose names became those of local towns) include the Natchez, the Yazoo, the Pascagoula, and the Biloxi.

The first major European expedition into the territory that became Mississippi was that of Hernando de Soto who passed through in 1540. The French claimed the territory that included Mississippi as part of their colony of New France and started settlement. They created the first Fort Maurepas under Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville on the site of modern Ocean Springs (or Old Biloxi) in 1699.

Mississippi (ⁱ/ˌmɪsɨˈsɪpi/) is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi ("Great River"). Mississippi is the 32nd most extensive and the 31st most populous of the 50 United States. The state is heavily forested outside of the Mississippi Delta area, which was cleared for cotton cultivation in the 19th century. Today, its catfish aquaculture farms produce the majority of farm-raised catfish consumed in the United States. The state symbol is the magnolia grandiflora tree.

Mississippi is bordered on the north by Tennessee, on the east by Alabama, on the south by Louisiana and a narrow coast on the Gulf of Mexico and on the west, across the Mississippi River, by Louisiana and Arkansas.

In addition to its namesake, major rivers in Mississippi include the Big Black River, the Pearl River, the Yazoo River, the Pascagoula River, and the Tombigbee River. Major lakes include Ross Barnett Reservoir, Arkabutla Lake, Sardis Lake and Grenada Lake. The largest lake in Mississippi is Grenada Lake.

Rick Ray is an American filmmaker best known for his 2006 documentary film 10 Questions for the Dalai Lama which he wrote, filmed and directed. His documentary Lynching Charlie Lynch, about the trials of former medical marijuana dispensary owner Charles C. Lynch, premiered at the 2011 San Luis Obispo International Film Festival on March 9.

Before 10 Questions for the Dalai Lama, Ray had produced eleven travel documentaries including The Soul of India, Raise the Bamboo Curtain: Vietnam, Cambodia and Burma (narrated by Martin Sheen), Morocco, Jerusalem: Sacred and Profane, and Lost Worlds of the Middle East.

Rick Ray graduated with a degree in film from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1981. He apprenticed on the television show Ripley's Believe it or Not! for two years. At one time he served as chauffeur to Jack Palance. He then spent several years traveling around the world with only a backpack, camera and notebook.

In 2000, Ray founded DVArchive.com, an internet based stock footage library with the intent of making the imagery from his extensive travels available to a wide variety of film and media producers.