b'to different people. Long ago theIntroduction Iroquois people named the river thatOhio is the 17th state of the forms the southern and eastern bound-United States of America. We in Ohio aries of our state. They called thethink of our state as a Midwestern river a word that sounded like O-Y-O,state. People who live on the east coast meaning great water. Whenof the U.S. describe Ohio as a western Europeans heard the word O-Y-O,state, but people who live west of the they turned it into the word we usedMississippi River think of Ohio as an today: Ohio. Soon the entire area northeastern state. Residents of Georgia or and west of the Ohio River was knownFlorida say Ohio is a northern state. as Ohio Country.However, if you lived in Michigan or Our state is an important one inWisconsin, Ohio would be south of you.this nation. As you will learn, most ofWhat does all this mean? Only the land areas that became states ofthat Ohio is a lot of different things the U.S. were patterned after Ohio. NW EOhio is consideredS to be amidwesternstate.'