Encyclopedia
Indiana, meaning the
"Land of the Indians," is a state in the Great Lakes region of the
Midwestern United States. Residents of Indiana are called Hoosiers. Indiana is 15
th in
population at nearly 6.3 million, and 38
th in size, making it 17
th in population density. About half of Indiana's population lives in the metropolitan areas of
Indianapolis,
Gary-
Hammond ,
Fort Wayne, or
Evansville.
Geography
Indiana is bounded on the north by
Lake Michigan and the state of
Michigan; on the east by
Ohio; on the south by
Kentucky, with which it shares the
Ohio River as a border; and on the west by
Illinois. Indiana is one of the
Great Lakes states.
The 475 mile long
Wabash River bisects the state from northeast to southwest and has given Indiana two theme songs, the state song
On the Banks of the Wabash as well as
The Wabash Cannonball. The White River zigzags through central Indiana. Indianapolis and Muncie are large cities on this river.
Evansville, the third largest city in Indiana, is located on the Ohio River, which forms all of the Indiana-Kentucky border.
Northwest Indiana
The northwest corner of the state is part of the greater metropolitan area of
Chicago and is therefore more densely populated with almost one million residents.
Gary, and the cities and towns that make up the northern half of
Lake, Porter, and La Porte Counties bordering on
Lake Michigan, are effectively commuter suburbs of Chicago. They are all in the Central
Time Zone along with Chicago & are served by the
South Shore Electric commuter rail line.
South Bend / North Central Indiana
South Bend,
Mishawaka,
Elkhart and
Goshen, in north central Indiana, make up the region known as
Michiana. These cities, though categorized by the U.S. Census Bureau in two metropolitan areas, have become a single metropolitan area over the past 10 years, spanning both
St. Joseph and
Elkhart counties.
The
Kankakee River, which winds through northern Indiana, serves somewhat as a demarcating line between rural and suburban northwest Indiana.
Central Indiana
The state capital,
Indianapolis is situated in the central portion of the state. Other cities nearby include historic
Columbus, known for its modern architectural heritage.
Southern Indiana
Southern Indiana is a mixture of farmland and forest. The
Hoosier National Forest is a 200,000 acre nature preserve in south central Indiana. Southern Indiana's topography is more varied and generally contains more hills and geographic variation than the northern portion, such as the "Knobs," a series of 1,000 ft. hills that run parallel to the Ohio River in south-central Indiana. The limestone geology of Southern Indiana has created numerous caves and one of the largest limestone quarry regions in the USA.
Areas under the control and protection of the
National Park Service include:
See also List of Indiana counties and their etymologies; List of townships in IndianaHistory
The area of Indiana has been settled since before the development of the
Hopewell culture . It was part of the
Mississippian culture from roughly the year 1000 up to 1400.). The specific
Native American tribes that inhabited this territory at that time were primarily the Miami and the
Shawnee. The area was claimed for
New France in the
17th century, handed over to the
Kingdom of Great Britain as part of the settlement at the end of the
French and Indian War, given to the
United States after the
American Revolution, soon after which it became part of the
Northwest Territory, then the
Indiana Territory, and joined the Union in 1816 as the 19th state. See
Northwest Indian War.
Pioneer Era: 1816-1860
On June 29, 1816, Indiana adopted a constitution, and on December 11, 1816, became the 19th State to join the Union. No slavery was allowed, making the state an attractive destination for people like
Abraham Lincoln's family, which was disgusted with slavery in Kentucky..
Indiana filled up from the Ohio River north. Emigration, mostly from Kentucky and Ohio, was so rapid that by 1820 the population was 147,176, and by 1830 the sales of public lands for the previous decade reached 3,588,000 acres and the population was 343,031. It had more than doubled since 1820. The first state capital was in southern Indiana in Corydon.
Transportation
Down the Mississippi and its tributaries was to be found the sole outlet for the increasing produce of the Middle West, whose waters drained into the great valley. Districts which were not upon streams navigable by even the lightest draught steamboat were economically handicapped. The small, flat boat was their main reliance. Roads suitable for heavy carriage were few up to the middle of the century. To meet this condition the building of canals was long advocated, in emulation of Ohio which took example after New York State. In 1826 Congress granted a strip two and a half miles wide on each side of the proposed canal. A very extensive and ambitious scale of main and lateral canals and turnpikes was advocated in consequence. The expense and time attending shipment of merchandise from the east at that time were almost prohibitive. Yet 100,000 bushels of salt came to the State each year from central New York, because it was a necessity, regardless of price. Work began on the Wabash and Erie Canal in 1832, on the White Water in 1836, on the Central in 1837. But bad financing and "bad times" nearly wrecked the whole scheme; yet the Wabash and Erie Canal was completed from Toledo to Evansville. It was a great factor in the development of the State, although it brought heavy loss upon the bondholders on the advent of the railroad, which competition the canal at that time could not stand. Before the canal was in operation wheat sold at 37 to 45 cents, and corn at 16 to 20 cents per bushel. Salt brought $10 per barrel, and sugar from 25 to 35 cents per pound. But the canal increased prices of farm products three or four fold and reduced prices of household needs 60%, a tremendous stimulus to agricultural development. By 1840 the population of the upper Wabash Valley had increased from 12,000 to 270,000. The canal boat that hauled loads of grain east came back loaded with immigrants. In 1846 it is estimated that over thirty families settled every day in the State.
Manufacturing also developed rapidly. In the ten years between 1840 and 1850 the counties bordering the canal increased in population 397 per cent; those more fertile, but more remote, 190 per cent. The tide of trade, which had been heretofore to New Orleans, was reversed and went east. The canal also facilitated and brought emigration from Ohio, New York, and New England, in the newly established counties in the northern two-thirds area of the State. The foreign immigration was mostly from Ireland and Germany. Later, this great canal fell into disuse, and finally was abandoned, as railway mileage increased.
In the next ten years, by 1840, of the public domain 9,122,688 acres had been sold. But the State was still heavily in debt, although growing rapidly. In 1851 a new constitution was adopted. The first constitution was adopted at a convention assembled at Corydon, which had been the seat of government since December, 1813. The original state house built of blue limestone, still stands; but in 1821 the site of the present capital was selected by the legislature; it was in the wilds sixty miles from civilization. By 1910 it was a city of 225,000 inhabitants and the largest inland steam and electric railroad center not on navigable a waterway in the United States. Yet no railroad reached it before 1847.
The State sent three regiments to the
Mexican-American War.
Lew Wallace was a second lieutenant. All her regiments were officered by volunteer officers.
Demographics
As of 2005, Indiana has an estimated population of 6,271,973, which is an increase of 45,436, or 0.7%, from the prior year and an increase of 191,456, or 3.1%, since the year 2000. This includes a natural increase since the last census of 159,488 people and an increase due to net migration of 38,656 people into the state. Immigration from outside the United States resulted in a net increase of 55,656 people, and migration within the country produced a net loss of 17,000 people.
As of 2005, the population included 242,281 foreign-born .
German is the largest ancestry reported in Indiana, with 22.7% of the population reporting that ancestry in the Census. Persons citing
"American" and English ancestry are also numerous, as are
Irish and
Polish . Only 91.9% of Hoosiers identified an ancestry.
South Bend has a large
Polish population and there are a sizable number of people with
Belgian ancestry in Mishawaka.
Dyngus Day, the Polish celebration of the end of Lent, takes place on the Monday after Easter and is widely celebrated in South Bend.
A large Hispanic/Latino population exists in Elkhart County, particularly the north side of the city of
Goshen. This formerly German- and Dutch-dominated area now has a high concentration of Hispanic -oriented businesses and many official signs in the area are bilingual. Indianapolis has a rapidly growing Hispanic/Latino population as well.
It is sometimes said that culturally Indiana is demarcated by
US Highway 30, which runs on a southeast-northwest axis from
Fort Wayne through
Merrillville into Illinois. Those living north of US 30 are often closer in attitude to
Chicago and
Detroit, and some feel a disconnection from the rest of the state. South of US 30 tends to have the more stereotypical Hoosier rural, conservative attitudes, though this of course is in question in the larger cities like
Indianapolis,
Lafayette and
Evansville.
Bloomington, home of
Indiana University, tends to be much more culturally liberal than the rest of the state. Southern Indiana tends to be culturally and linguistically more associated with Kentucky.
Population growth since 1990 has been concentrated in the counties surrounding Indianapolis, with four of the top five fastest-growing counties in that area:
Hamilton, Hendricks, Johnson, and
Hancock. The other county is
Dearborn County, which is near
Cincinnati. Meanwhile, population decline has primarily been in a series of counties that geographically form a line between Logansport and
Richmond. Most of these counties were at the heart of the Gas Belt.
Vigo, Knox, and
Perry counties, along the
Wabash River and the
Ohio River, also experienced decline.
Religion
Religiously, Indiana is predominantly Protestant, although there is also a significant
Roman Catholic population. The Catholic presence is perhaps better known than its size would imply due to the existence of the
University of Notre Dame, as well as a thriving parochial school system in the larger metropolitan areas. Southern Indiana is the home to a number of Catholic monasteries and one of the two archabbeys in the United States,
St. Meinrad Archabbey. Indiana is home to a sizable and influential proportion of
Mennonite and
Amish Christians, particularly in Elkhart and LaGrange Counties in the north, and a smaller number in Parke County in the west. The state has the nation's largest population of members of the Protestant "Churches of Christ" denomination.
Roman Catholic and mainline Protestant churches are strong in the cities, but in rural areas evangelical and fundamentalist churches, such as independent Baptist and Pentecostal churches, tend to dominate. Two conservative denominations, the
Free Methodist Church and the
Wesleyan Church, have their headquarters in Indianapolis.
The Islamic Society of North America is headquartered just off
Interstate 70 in Plainfield, west of Indianapolis.
There are significant numbers of
Jews in urban areas, particularly Indianapolis, South Bend, Fort Wayne and Terre Haute.
The current religious affiliations of the people of Indiana are shown below:
- Christian – 82%
- Protestant – 62%
- Roman Catholic – 19%
- Other Christian – 1%
- Other Religions – 1%
- Non-Religious – 17%
In 1906 the Census reported there were 938,405 members of different religious denominations; of this total 233,443 were Methodists ; 174,849 were Roman Catholics, 108,188 were Disciples of Christ ; 92,705 were Baptists ; 58,633 were Presbyterians ; 55,768 were Lutherans , 52,700 were United Brethren and 21,624 of the German Evangelical Synod.
Important cities and towns
Indianapolis is the capital of Indiana, near the geographic center of the state. Other Indiana cities functioning as centers of
United States metropolitan areas include
Anderson,
Bloomington ,
Columbus,
Elkhart,
Evansville ,
Fort Wayne,
Gary ,
Kokomo,
Lafayette , Michigan City,
Muncie ,
South Bend Indiana cities that function as centers of United States micropolitan areas include
Angola,
Auburn, Bedford,
Connersville, Crawfordsville,
Decatur, Frankfort,
Greensburg,
Huntington,
Jasper,
Kendallville, Logansport, Madison,
Marion,
New Castle,
North Vernon,
Peru,
Plymouth,
Richmond, Scottsburg, Seymour,
Vincennes,
Wabash,
Warsaw, and Washington.
Other communities with populations of 10,000 or more include
Beech Grove, Brownsburg,
Carmel, Chesterton,
Clarksville,
Connersville, Crawfordsville, Crown Point,
Dyer, East Chicago,
Fishers, Franklin,
Goshen, Greencastle,
Greenfield, Greenwood, Griffith,
Hammond, Highland, Hobart,
Jeffersonville, Lake Station, Lawrence,
Lebanon, Martinsville,
Merrillville, Mooresville, Munster, New Albany, New Haven,
Noblesville, Plainfield,
Portage,
Schererville,
Shelbyville,
Speedway,
Valparaiso, West Lafayette ,
Westfield, and Zionsville.
The suburbs of Indianapolis include
Anderson, Avon,
Beech Grove, Brownsburg,
Carmel, Clermont, Danville,
Fishers, Franklin,
Greenfield, Greenwood, Lawrence,
Lebanon,
Noblesville, Pendleton, Plainfield, Southport,
Speedway, West Newton, Whiteland, and Zionsville.
The Indiana suburbs of
Chicago,
Illinois include Crown Point,
Dyer, East Chicago,
Gary, Griffith,
Hammond, Highland, Lake County, Hobart,
Merrillville, Munster,
Valparaiso,
Portage, and Chesterton.
The Indiana suburbs of
Louisville, Kentucky include
Clarksville,
Jeffersonville, and New Albany.
Fort Wayne's Indiana suburbs include Huntertown, Leo-Cedarville, Monroeville, and New Haven, Woodburn.
Evansville's Indiana suburbs include Princeton, Newburgh, and Mt. Vernon.
South Bend's Indiana suburbs include Granger,
Mishawaka, North Liberty,
Osceola,
Walkerton, and
Roseland.
Law and government
Indiana's government has three branches: executive, legislative and judicial. The governor, elected for a four-year term, heads the executive branch. The General Assembly, the legislative branch, consists of the Senate and the House of Representatives. Indiana's fifty State Senators are elected for four-year terms and one hundred State Representatives for two-year terms. In odd-numbered years, the General Assembly meets in a sixty-one day session. In even-numbered years, the Assembly meets for thirty session days. The judicial branch consists of the Indiana Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, the Indiana Tax Court, and local circuit courts. On the national level, Indiana is represented in Congress by two Senators and nine Representatives.
The current governor of Indiana is Mitch Daniels, whose campaign slogan was "My Man Mitch," an appellation given by
President George W. Bush for whom Mitch Daniels was the director of the
Office of Management and Budget 
