Harry Hoosier was the first Black Methodist preacher in the country.
(Lauren Tucker)
The unlikely duo of copyright law and folklore about Indiana history come together in a bill filed with state lawmakers.
House Bill 1013, authored by Rep. J.D. Prescott (R-Winchester) would make “The Hoosier State” Indiana’s official nickname, and it would designate Harry Hoosier as the inspiration.
But even something as seemingly innocuous as officially making Indiana’s nickname "The Hoosier State" isn’t clearcut.
Amtrak owns the trademark to “The Hoosier State,” for a train route that used to run between Indianapolis and Chicago but was discontinued in 2019.
A professor at IU Maurer School of Law, however, said there shouldn’t be any issues for the state if they only utilize the phrase as a declaration — which they intend to do — instead of selling merchandise with the phrase printed on it.
“What a trademark right gives you is not the exclusive right to take a phrase out of the language and block others from using it, even commercially,” said Mark Janis, Robert A. Lucas Chair of Law and director of the Center for Intellectual Property Research. “It only gives you the right to exclude other people from uses that would be confusingly similar to your use.”
The part of the bill about Harry Hoosier is much more problematic.
Prescott said he wants the state to officially memorialize Harry Hoosier’s life and accomplishments.
Rep. J.D. Prescott said if the bill gets passed, Harry Hoosier's story would be the official reasoning Indiana is named "The Hoosier State." Teachers in K-12 classrooms should then refer to it. (Alaina Davis)
“We're teaching our children in school: How do we get the Hoosier name?” he said. “I think it's an important story to reflect on and understand how we truly got our Hoosier heritage.”
But there are many theories as to why people in Indiana are called Hoosiers.
Jon Kay, director of Traditional Arts Indiana and Indiana University interim director for arts and humanities, said there is no “right” story for why people in Indiana are called Hoosiers. He said there isn’t enough evidence to back up any one theory.
“The word Hoosier is a legend,” Kay said. “It is a story that is told that passes from one person to the next, that tries to explain how something came to be … my feeling is the definition of Hoosier is always going to be opinion.”
Not something elected officials vote into reality.
Jon Kay, director of Traditional Arts Indiana and Indiana University interim director for arts and humanities, said the word "Hoosier" is a piece of folklore, not history, because there is no clear origin to the word. (Lauren Tucker)
One of the earliest uses of Hoosier dates back to 1833. John Finley published the poem “The Hoosher’s Nest,” which identifies people from Indiana as upwardly mobile farmers. The word also appeared in a literary context, and was originally thought to be an insult, but was quickly adopted as a term describing people from Indiana.
Prescott, however, is solidly in Harry Hoosier’s corner.
Harry Hoosier was a slave born in 1750 in North Carolina. He traveled alongside Methodist Episcopal Bishop Francis Asbury and became the first Black American Methodist preacher in the country.
JD Minear, co-founder of the Harry Hoosier Project, has a website celebrating the man.
“He was illiterate, but he memorized hymns and Scripture so well that when Bishop Asbury would go on the circuit … it didn't take long (before) Asbury said, ‘I've done my preaching. I want you to have my friend (Hoosier) speak for a little while,’” Minear said. “And especially if they were in the south and there were slave plantations, Harry would speak to them.”
JD Minear created the website "The Hoosier Project" to memorialize Harry Hoosier. (Lauren Tucker)
Hoosier never spoke in Indiana, but would preach to people as near as Kentucky. It’s also possible he could have crossed the Ohio River into Indiana territory before Indiana officially became a state. Many of his followers were Methodists; Methodists settled in Indiana before it officially became a state and had a significant presence.
“It wasn't that Harry was here preaching,” Prescott said. “But it was the followers of his teachings who moved into Indiana and the Indiana territory. The followers of his teachings, they were known as Hoosiers.”
Kay isn’t convinced.
“The fact that it is kind of unknown is part of the beauty of the word,” he said. “That's why I think it would be so wrong for the state to define what it is.”
