State of Indiana

' State of Indiana
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Motto: Crossroads of America
Anthem: On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away

Indiana (Latin: Land of the Indians), also The Hoosier State, is a federal state within the larger U.S., having been admitted to the Union in 1816. Although the first permanent European settlement in Indiana was the French city of Vincennes, the largest & most populous city in the state (as well as the capital) is Indianapolis.

The process of Euro-American settler-colonization in Indiana was accompanied and intensified by the passage of the Indian Removal Act in 1830, with the native people of Indiana being forcibly removed from Indiana to territories farther west over a period of about fifteen years as a result of that Act, in addition to being faced with the ongoing poverty, violence, and oppression caused by the overall colonization process.

Indiana has an incarceration rate of 765 per 100,000 people (including prisons, jails, immigration detention, and juvenile justice facilities), meaning that it locks up a higher percentage of its people than any democracy on earth, with a higher incarceration rate than the United States overall. Demographically, white inmates are underrepresented in Indiana's incarceration system, while Black and Latino inmates are overrepresented. Indiana is also one of only 8 state prison systems that did not offer free phone calls at any point during the COVID-19 pandemic. As of August 2020, Indiana prisons were not requiring staff to wear masks at work, as of mid-May 2021, only 43% of people in Indiana prisons had gotten a vaccine.

History

Several prominent Native American nations lived in the Indiana region around the 19th century. The largest were the Miami, Shawnee, and Illinois. Refugees from other nations also resided in the area, including the Lenape (Delaware). Indiana was home to several bands of Miami, including Wea and Piankashaw. All of Indiana was within Miami territory, with most of its towns in the northern portion of what became the state’s boundaries. By the 1780s, the Lenape (Delaware) and Shawnee both built prominent villages in what later became Indiana. The original homelands of the Lenape were in eastern North America and they were forced westward by successive European settler invasions. The Shawnee homelands were in the Ohio River Valley, which they were forced to abandon after the end of the American Revolution. The Lenape settled villages in the White River Valley in what became central Indiana and both the Lenape and the Shawnee settled in the Maumee River Valley in the northeast of the state.

At the time of European encroachment, indigenous groups primarily spoke Algonquian languages. These groups lived in villages composed of round, dome-shaped dwellings called wiikiaami made with woven reeds. The Miami villages contained multiple large extended family groups called clans. Each village was governed by separate men’s and women’s councils, each of which was represented by a civil chief. Each village also had multiple war leaders who would lead groups of men during times of armed conflict. Each nation had its own distinct culture and language, but there were some shared practices. For example, men and women interacted freely within these communities and women held a lot of power over home and village life. Women were responsible for agriculture and knew how to grow crops together to avoid soil erosion. Villages shifted their locations in order to allow the environment to replenish. The various European settlers who colonized North America often expected Native Americans to have one authoritarian male leader, and they often did not understand the intricate social ties that unified the Miami, Shawnee, Illinois, and others.

In 1830 the Indian Removal Act was passed, which accelerated the process of ethnic cleansing committed by the Euro-American settlers against the native people of Indiana. The Potawatomi village, led by Chief Menominee, resisted as long as possible. He and his village were removed along what is called the Potawatomi Trail of Death in 1838.