Question: Why are Indiana residents called “Hoosiers”?
Answer: Scholars still debate exactly where the term “Hoosiers” originated, but it moved into commonplace usage as a term for Indianians in the 1830s after the publication of “The Hoosier’s Nest” poem by John Finley, Indiana’s first Poet-Legislator. Finley’s use of the term “Hoosier” in literature helped garner respect for the term, which previously was an insult meaning “country backwoodsman.”
