[Red Badger]

What in hayseed tarnations is an Indianan?

What in hayseed tarnations is a HOOSIER???????.........

[Tenacious 1]

"What in hayseed tarnations is a HOOSIER???????........."

Hoosier: A citizen resident of the state of Indiana.

What does Hoosier mean? ...We're still working on that. I'll get back to you.

[Tenacious 1]

"What in hayseed tarnations is a HOOSIER???????........."

Hoosier: A citizen resident of the state of Indiana.

What does Hoosier mean? ...We're still working on that. I'll get back to you.

[mhking]

What in hayseed tarnations is a HOOSIER???????.........

What's a Hoosier? - Courtesy IU Alumni Association

"In the beginning was the word," begins Howard H. Peckham's Indiana: A Bicentennial History. "And the word was Hoosier."

As Peckham states -- and most Hoosier historians seem to agree -- the historical explanations are "more ingenious than real."

Still, the many theories are fascinating in their diversity. Take the one that has a contractor in 1825 named either Samuel Hoosier or Hoosher. His workers, who helped build a canal on the Ohio River, were predominantly from Indiana. They were called "Hoo sier's men" or "Hoosiers."

A more colorful tale has the word deriving from the phrase fearful early settlers called out when startled by a knock on their cabin door: "Who's here? -- a call that over time degenerated into Hoosier.

And though I'm a Boilermaker (at least I was for two years, anyway), I'm still a Hoosier by birth, as are all of us born in Indiana.

[raisincane]

Hoosier family? Hoosier dog? Hoosier house? Way back in the early 1800's when newcomers came into Indian Country, the folks here always asked, "Hoosier?"