Indiana’s two US Senators have sent a bipartisan letter to the federal office responsible for printing government documents, asking that the word “Hoosiers” be the official word to describe Indiana residents.

According to a style manual from the US Government Publishing Office, those who live in Indiana are “Indianans.”  That office produces and prints documents for all three branches of the federal government.

Republican Senator Dan Coats and Democratic Senator Joe Donnelly sent a letter today, urging the use of “Hoosiers” to describe, well, Hoosiers.  The senators say that local newspapers have been using the term since 1826.  They also quote a poem from Richmond poet John Finley that they say normalized the term.  The poem is called “The Hoosier’s Nest.”