LAST MINUTE MUSINGS: We always have been, and remain, Hoosiers

For most of our 200-year history, at least one thing has united us as natives and residents of Indiana.

We are Hoosiers.

Not “Indianans.”

Not “Indianians.” How is that even a thing, by the way? Why add an unneccessary syllable? What a strange word.

We are Hoosiers.

Even if you’re a Boilermaker, you’re a Hoosier.

Even if you’re a Bulldog — or a Sycamore or a Cardinal or a Tiger or even a Little Giant — you’re a Hoosier.

Even if you’re really a Milan Indian (not to be confused with a Hickory Husker), you’re a Hoosier.

We are all Hoosiers.

Say it together, everybody:

We are all Hoosiers.

The federal government has finally also joined that chorus, although it was a bit slow on the uptake, as usual.

Released Thursday, the 31st edition of the U.S. Government Publishing Office Style Manual finally recognizes “Hoosier” as the term for an Indiana native.

First published in 1894, the GPO Style Manual had previously accepted “Indianian” as the term.

Somehow it took 122 years to get this done, but thanks to the work of Sen. Joe Donnelly and former Sen. Dan Coats, it finally came to be on Thursday.

Hey, that’s a Democrat and a Republican working together. Who says the bipartisanship is dead?

“We find it a little jarring to be referred to this way,” Donnelly and Coats wrote in a letter to the GPO last year.

Donnelly and Sen. Todd Young, Coats’ replacement, announced the change Thursday morning not only with a press release, but a pair of short videos.

While acknowledging at one point that “we’re not delivering world peace,” Young makes an important point about changing anything at the federal level.

“If we can get the federal bureaucracy to agree with us on that,” the freshman senator begins, “then I feel like there’s nothing we can’t do.”

While non-Hoosiers may laugh, it is a notable accomplishment in that Hoosier is the only GPO-recognized term that does not contain some form of the state’s name.

While “Hawaii resident” may seem overly formal and awkward and “Utahn” is just plain strange, Hoosier is unique among the 50 states and for that, we should be proud.

Of course, this brings up the age-old question of where the term Hoosier came from.

Some say early Indiana settlers would respond with “Who’s yer?” (Who’s here?) when a knock came at the door of the cabin. This one does have some credence when you consider how many of our early settlers got here by way of Kentucky.

There’s also the story of Samuel Hoosier, a Louisville contractor who liked to hire canal diggers from the New Albany over Kentuckians. They came to be known as “Hoosier’s men” and eventually just “Hoosiers.”

I’ve always been partial to James Whitcomb Riley’s joke about “Who’s ear?” — a query asked by Indiana tavern owners after brawls upon finding the now-useless appendage on the floor.

However it came to be, it’s nice to know that the federal government listens, at least once in a while.

“I’m glad to know that the federal government has agreed to our change,” Donnelly says, “and will now call us what we call ourselves — Hoosiers.”