Schools in Indiana
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Indiana residents have been proudly calling themselves 'Hoosiers,' since the 1830s, when John Finley of Richmond, Indiana, penned a poem called "The Hoosiers' Nest." The term gained popularity from there, but the one thing no one has ever been able to confirm is where the word 'Hoosier' actually comes from. One theory has it that when visitors approached a pioneer cabin in Indiana, the settler would call out, "Who's yere?"
Regardless of origin, the word went on to become the de facto description for an Indiana native, as well as its state motto - although "crossroads of America" also competes for that honor. Indiana's capital is Indianapolis, the official flower is the peony, and its state song is "On the Banks of the Wabash," which starts with the words, "Round my Indiana homestead wave the cornfields, in the distance loom the woodlands clear and cool."