24/7 Local Dentist Locations in Indiana

About Indiana State

Indiana (/ˌɪndiˈænə/ (About this soundlisten)) is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 United States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th state on December 11, 1816. It is bordered by Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the south and southeast, and the Wabash River and Illinois to the west.



Various indigenous peoples inhabited Indiana for thousands of years. They were expelled in an ethnic cleansing during the decade before Indiana's establishment as a territory. Since then, settlement patterns in Indiana have reflected regional cultural segmentation present in the Eastern United States; the state's northernmost tier was settled primarily by people from New England and New York, Central Indiana by migrants from the Mid-Atlantic states and adjacent Ohio, and Southern Indiana by settlers from the Upland South, particularly Kentucky and Tennessee.[6]



Indiana has a diverse economy with a gross state product of $377.1 billion in 2019.[7] It has several metropolitan areas with populations greater than 100,000 and a number of smaller cities and towns. Indiana is home to professional sports teams, including the NFL's Indianapolis Colts and the NBA's Indiana Pacers, and hosts several notable competitive events, including the Indianapolis 500.



Etymology

Welcome to Indiana, Crossroads of America.jpg

Indiana's name means "Land of the Indians", or simply "Indian Land".[8] It also stems from Indiana's territorial history. On May 7, 1800, the United States Congress passed legislation to divide the Northwest Territory into two areas and named the western section the Indiana Territory. In 1816, when Congress passed an Enabling Act to begin the process of establishing statehood for Indiana, a part of this territorial land became the geographic area for the new state.[9][10][11]



A resident of Indiana is officially known as a Hoosier.[12] The etymology of this word is disputed, but the leading theory, advanced by the Indiana Historical Bureau and the Indiana Historical Society, has its origin in Virginia, the Carolinas, and Tennessee (the Upland South) as a term for a backwoodsman, a rough countryman, or a country bumpkin.[13][14]



History

Main article: History of Indiana

See also: Outline of Indiana § History

Indigenous inhabitants



Angel Mounds State Historic Site was one of the northernmost Mississippian culture settlements, occupied from 1100 to 1450.

The first inhabitants in what is now Indiana were the Paleo-Indians, who arrived about 8000 BCE after the melting of the glaciers at the end of the Ice Age. Divided into small groups, the Paleo-Indians were nomads who hunted large game such as mastodons. They created stone tools made out of chert by chipping, knapping and flaking.[15]



The Archaic period, which began between 5000 and 4000 BC, covered the next phase of indigenous culture. The people developed new tools as well as techniques to cook food, an important step in civilization. These new tools included different types of spear points and knives, with various forms of notches. They made ground-stone tools such as stone axes, woodworking tools and grinding stones. During the latter part of the period, they built earthwork mounds and middens, which showed settlements were becoming more permanent. The Archaic period ended at about 1500 BC, although some Archaic people lived until 700 BC.[15]



The Woodland period began around 1500 BC when new cultural attributes appeared. The people created ceramics and pottery and extended their cultivation of plants. An early Woodland period group named the Adena people had elegant burial rituals, featuring log tombs beneath earth mounds. In the middle of the Woodland period, the Hopewell people began to develop long-range trade of goods. Nearing the end of the stage, the people developed highly productive cultivation and adaptation of agriculture, growing such crops as corn and squash. The Woodland period ended around 1000 AD.[15]



The Mississippian culture emerged, lasting from 1000 AD until the 15th century, shortly before the arrival of Europeans. During this stage, the people created large urban settlements designed according to their cosmology, with large mounds and plazas defining ceremonial and public spaces. The concentrated settlements depended on the agricultural surpluses. One such complex was the Angel Mounds. They had large public areas such as plazas and platform mounds, where leaders lived or conducted rituals. Mississippian civilization collapsed in Indiana during the mid-15th century for reasons that remain unclear.[15]



The historic Native American tribes in the area at the time of European encounter spoke different languages of the Algonquian family. They included the Shawnee, Miami, and Illini. Refugee tribes from eastern regions, including the Delaware who settled in the White and Whitewater River Valleys, later joined them.



European exploration and sovereignty

See also: New France, Louisiana (New France), Illinois Country, and Province of Quebec (1763–1791)



Native Americans guide French explorers through Indiana, as depicted by Maurice Thompson in Stories of Indiana.

In 1679, French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle was the first European to cross into Indiana after reaching present-day South Bend at the Saint Joseph River.[16] He returned the following year to learn about the region. French-Canadian fur traders soon arrived, bringing blankets, jewelry, tools, whiskey and weapons to trade for skins with the Native Americans.



By 1702, Sieur Juchereau established the first trading post near Vincennes. In 1715, Sieur de Vincennes built Fort Miami at Kekionga, now Fort Wayne. In 1717, another Canadian, Picote de Beletre, built Fort Ouiatenon on the Wabash River, to try to control Native American trade routes from Lake Erie to the Mississippi River.



In 1732, Sieur de Vincennes built a second fur trading post at Vincennes. French Canadian settlers, who had left the earlier post because of hostilities, returned in larger numbers. In a period of a few years, British colonists arrived from the East and contended against the Canadians for control of the lucrative fur trade. Fighting between the French and British colonists occurred throughout the 1750s as a result.



The Native American tribes of Indiana sided with the French Canadians during the French and Indian War (also known as the Seven Years' War). With British victory in 1763, the French were forced to cede to the British crown all their lands in North America east of the Mississippi River and north and west of the colonies.



The tribes in Indiana did not give up: they captured Fort Ouiatenon and Fort Miami during Pontiac's Rebellion. The British royal proclamation of 1763 designated the land west of the Appalachians for Native American use, and excluded British colonists from the area, which the Crown called "Indian Territory".



In 1775, the American Revolutionary War began as the colonists sought self-government and independence from the British. The majority of the fighting took place near the East Coast, but the Patriot military officer George Rogers Clark called for an army to help fight the British in the west.[17] Clark's army won significant battles and took over Vincennes and Fort Sackville on February 25, 1779.[18]



During the war, Clark managed to cut off British troops, who were attacking the eastern colonists from the west. His success is often credited for changing the course of the American Revolutionary War.[19] At the end of the war, through the Treaty of Paris, the British crown ceded their claims to the land south of the Great Lakes to the newly formed United States, including Native American lands.



The frontier

Main articles: Northwest Ordinance, Northwest Territory, Organic act § List of organic acts, and Indiana Territory

A colorful map of Indiana with treaty names

A crude map of Indiana with only a handful of southern counties delineated

Above: a map showing extent of the treaty lands. Below: one of the first maps of Indiana (made 1816, published 1817) showing territories prior to the Treaty of St. Mary's which greatly expanded the region. Note the inaccurate placement of Lake Michigan.

In 1787, the US defined the Northwest Territory which included the area of present-day Indiana. In 1800, Congress separated Ohio from the Northwest Territory, designating the rest of the land as the Indiana Territory.[20] President Thomas Jefferson chose William Henry Harrison as the governor of the territory, and Vincennes was established as the capital.[21] After the Michigan Territory was separated and the Illinois Territory was formed, Indiana was reduced to its current size and geography.[20]



Starting with the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794 and the Treaty of Greenville in 1795, Native American titles to Indiana lands were extinguished by usurpation, purchase, or war and treaty. About half the state was acquired in the Treaty of St. Mary's from the Miami in 1818. Purchases were not complete until the Treaty of Mississinewas in 1826 acquired the last of the reserved Native American lands in the northeast.



A portrait of the Indiana frontier about 1810: The frontier was defined by the Treaty of Fort Wayne in 1809, adding much of the southwestern lands around Vincennes and southeastern lands adjacent to Cincinnati, to areas along the Ohio River as part of U.S. territory. Settlements were military outposts such as Fort Ouiatenon in the northwest and Fort Miami (later Fort Wayne) in the northeast, Fort Knox and Vincennes settlement on the lower Wabash. Other settlements included Clarksville (across from Louisville), Vevay, and Corydon along the Ohio River, the Quaker Colony in Richmond on the eastern border, and Conner's Post (later Connersville) on the east central frontier. Indianapolis would not be populated for 15 more years, and central and northern Indiana Territory remained wilderness populated primarily by Indigenous communities. Only two counties in the extreme southeast, Clark and Dearborn, had been organized by European settlers. Land titles issued out of Cincinnati were sparse. Settler migration was chiefly via flatboat on the Ohio River westerly, and by wagon trails up the Wabash/White River Valleys (west) and Whitewater River Valleys (east).



In 1810, the Shawnee tribal chief Tecumseh and his brother Tenskwatawa encouraged other indigenous tribes in the territory to resist European settlement. Tensions rose and the US authorized Harrison to launch a preemptive expedition against Tecumseh's Confederacy; the US gained victory at the Battle of Tippecanoe on November 7, 1811. Tecumseh was killed in 1813 during the Battle of Thames. After his death, armed resistance to United States control ended in the region. Most Native American tribes in the state were later removed to west of the Mississippi River in the 1820s and 1830s after US negotiations and the purchase of their lands.[22]



Statehood and settlement



Indiana's Capitol Building in Corydon served as the state's seat of government from 1816 until 1825.[23]

Corydon, a town in the far southern part of Indiana, was named the second capital of the Indiana Territory in May 1813 in order to decrease the threat of Native American raids following the Battle of Tippecanoe.[20] Two years later, a petition for statehood was approved by the territorial general assembly and sent to Congress. An Enabling Act was passed to provide an election of delegates to write a constitution for Indiana. On June 10, 1816, delegates assembled at Corydon to write the constitution, which was completed in 19 days. Jonathan Jennings was elected the fledgling state's first governor in August 1816. President James Madison approved Indiana's admission into the union as the nineteenth state on December 11, 1816.[18] In 1825, the state capital was moved from Corydon to Indianapolis.[20]



Many European immigrants went west to settle in Indiana in the early 19th century. The largest immigrant group to settle in Indiana were Germans, as well as many immigrants from Ireland and England. Americans who were primarily ethnically English migrated from the Northern Tier of New York and New England, as well as from the mid-Atlantic state of Pennsylvania.[24][25] The arrival of steamboats on the Ohio River in 1811, and the National Road at Richmond in 1829, greatly facilitated settlement of northern and western Indiana.



Following statehood, the new government worked to transform Indiana from a frontier into a developed, well-populated, and thriving state, beginning significant demographic and economic changes. In 1836, the state's founders initiated a program, the Indiana Mammoth Internal Improvement Act, that led to the construction of roads, canals, railroads and state-funded public schools. The plans bankrupted the state and were a financial disaster, but increased land and produce value more than fourfold.[26] In response to the crisis and in order to avert another, in 1851, a second constitution was adopted. Among its provisions were a prohibition on public debt, as well as the extension of suffrage to African-Americans.



Civil War and late 19th century industry

Main article: Indiana in the American Civil War

During the American Civil War, Indiana became politically influential and played an important role in the affairs of the nation. Indiana was the first western state to mobilize for the United States in the war, and soldiers from Indiana participated in all the war's major engagements. The state provided 126 infantry regiments, 26 batteries of artillery and 13 regiments of cavalry to the Union.[27]



In 1861, Indiana was assigned a quota of 7,500 men to join the Union Army.[28] So many volunteered in the first call that thousands had to be turned away. Before the war ended, Indiana had contributed 208,367 men. Casualties were over 35% among these men: 24,416 lost their lives and over 50,000 more were wounded.[29] The only Civil War conflicts fought in Indiana were the Newburgh Raid, a bloodless capture of the city; and the Battle of Corydon, which occurred during Morgan's Raid leaving 15 dead, 40 wounded, and 355 captured.[30]



Wiki letter w.svg

This article is missing information about Civil War legacy and late 19th century industry. Please expand the article to include this information. Further details may exist on the talk page. (January 2015)

After the war, Indiana remained a largely agricultural state. Post-war industries included mining, including limestone extraction; meatpacking; food processing, such as milling grain, distilling it into alcohol; and the building of wagons, buggies, farm machinery, and hardware.[31] However, the discovery of natural gas in the 1880s in northern Indiana led to an economic boom: the abundant and cheap fuel attracted heavy industry; the availability of jobs, in turn, attracted new settlers from other parts of the country as well as from Europe.[32] This led to the rapid expansion of cities such as South Bend, Gary, Indianapolis, and Fort Wayne.[31]



Early 20th century



Child laborers in glassworks, by Lewis Hine. Indiana, August 1908.

With the onset of the industrial revolution, Indiana's industry began to grow at an accelerated rate across the northern part of the state. With industrialization, workers developed labor unions and suffrage movements arose in relation to the progress of women.[32] In the early 20th century, Indiana developed into a strong manufacturing state with ties to the new auto industry.[24] Haynes-Apperson, the nation's first commercially successful auto company, operated in Kokomo until 1925. The construction of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the start of auto-related industries were also related to the auto industry boom.[33]



During the 1930s, Indiana, like the rest of the nation, was affected by the Great Depression. The economic downturn had a wide-ranging negative impact on Indiana, such as the decline of urbanization. The Dust Bowl further to the west led many migrants to flee to the more industrialized Midwest. Governor Paul V. McNutt's administration struggled to build a state-funded welfare system to help overwhelmed private charities. During his administration, spending and taxes were both cut drastically in response to the Depression, and the state government was completely reorganized. McNutt ended Prohibition in the state and enacted the state's first income tax. On several occasions, he declared martial law to put an end to worker strikes.[34] World War II helped lift the economy in Indiana, as the war required steel, food and other goods that were produced in the state.[35] Roughly ten percent of Indiana's population joined the armed forces, while hundreds of industries earned war production contracts and began making war material.[36] Indiana manufactured 4.5 percent of total United States military armaments produced during World War II, ranking eighth among the 48 states.[37] The expansion of industry to meet war demands helped end the Great Depression.[35]



Modern era

With the conclusion of World War II, Indiana rebounded to pre-Depression levels of production. Industry became the primary employer, a trend that continued into the 1960s. Urbanization during the 1950s and 1960s led to substantial growth in the state's cities. The auto, steel and pharmaceutical industries topped Indiana's major businesses. Indiana's population continued to grow after the war, exceeding five million by the 1970 census.[38] In the 1960s the administration of Matthew E. Welsh adopted its first sales tax of two percent.[39] Indiana schools were desegregated in 1949. In 1950, the Census Bureau reported Indiana's population as 95.5% white and 4.4% black.[40] Governor Welsh also worked with the General Assembly to pass the Indiana Civil Rights Bill, granting equal protection to minorities in seeking employment.[41]



On December 8, 1964, a Convair B-58 carrying nuclear weapons slid off an icy runway on Bunker Hill Air Force Base in Bunker Hill, Indiana and caught fire during a training drill. The five nuclear weapons on board were burned, including one 9-megaton thermonuclear weapon, causing radioactive contamination of the crash area.[42]



Beginning in 1970, a series of amendments to the state constitution were proposed. With adoption, the Indiana Court of Appeals was created and the procedure of appointing justices on the courts was adjusted.[43]



The 1973 oil crisis created a recession that hurt the automotive industry in Indiana. Companies such as Delco Electronics and Delphi began a long series of downsizing that contributed to high unemployment rates in manufacturing in Anderson, Muncie, and Kokomo. The restructuring and deindustrialization trend continued until the 1980s when the national and state economy began to diversify and recover.[44]



ith a total area (land and water) of 36,418 square miles (94,320 km2), Indiana ranks as the 38th largest state in size.[45] The state has a maximum dimension north to south of 250 miles (400 km) and a maximum east to west dimension of 145 miles (233 km).[46] The state's geographic center (39° 53.7'N, 86° 16.0W) is in Marion County.[47]



Located in the Midwestern United States, Indiana is one of eight states that make up the Great Lakes Region.[48] Indiana is bordered on the north by Michigan, on the east by Ohio, and on the west by Illinois, partially separated by the Wabash River.[49] Lake Michigan borders Indiana on the northwest and the Ohio River separates Indiana from Kentucky on the south.[47][50]



Geology and terrain

See also: Paleontology in Indiana



Rolling hills in the Charles C. Deam Wilderness Area of Hoosier National Forest, in the Indiana Uplands

The average altitude of Indiana is about 760 feet (230 m) above sea level.[51] The highest point in the state is Hoosier Hill in Wayne County at 1,257 feet (383 m) above sea level.[45][52] The lowest point at 320 feet (98 m) above sea level is in Posey County, where the Wabash River meets the Ohio River.[45][47] The resulting elevation span, 937 feet (286 m), is the narrowest of any non-coastal US state. Only 2,850 square miles (7,400 km2) have an altitude greater than 1,000 feet (300 m) and this area is enclosed within 14 counties. About 4,700 square miles (12,000 km2) have an elevation of less than 500 feet (150 m), mostly concentrated along the Ohio and lower Wabash Valleys, from Tell City and Terre Haute to Evansville and Mount Vernon.[53]



The state includes two natural regions of the United States: the Central Lowlands and the Interior Low Plateaus.[54] The till plains make up the northern and central regions of Indiana. Much of its appearance is a result of elements left behind by glaciers. Central Indiana is mainly flat with some low rolling hills (except where rivers cut deep valleys through the plain, like at the Wabash River and Sugar Creek) and soil composed of glacial sands, gravel and clay, which results in exceptional farmland.[49] Northern Indiana is similar, except for the presence of higher and hillier terminal moraines and hundreds of kettle lakes. In northwest Indiana there are various sand ridges and dunes, some reaching nearly 200 feet in height; most of them are at Indiana Dunes National Park. These are along the Lake Michigan shoreline and also inland to the Kankakee Outwash Plain.



Southern Indiana is characterized by valleys and rugged, hilly terrain, contrasting with much of the state. Here, bedrock is exposed at the surface. Because of the prevalent Indiana limestone, the area has many caves, caverns, and quarries.



Hydrology

See also: List of Indiana rivers, List of dams and reservoirs in Indiana, List of lakes in Indiana, and Watersheds of Indiana



The Wabash River converges with the Ohio River at Posey County.

Major river systems in Indiana include the Whitewater, White, Blue, Wabash, St. Joseph, and Maumee rivers.[55] According to the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, there were 65 rivers, streams, and creeks of environmental interest or scenic beauty, which included only a portion of an estimated 24,000 total river miles within the state.[56]



The Wabash River, which is the longest free-flowing river east of the Mississippi River, is the official river of Indiana.[57][58] At 475 miles (764 kilometers) in length, the river bisects the state from northeast to southwest, forming part of the state's border with Illinois, before converging with the Ohio River. The river has been the subject of several songs, such as On the Banks of the Wabash, The Wabash Cannonball and Back Home Again, In Indiana.[59][60]



There are about 900 lakes listed by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources.[61] To the northwest, Indiana borders Lake Michigan, one of five lakes comprising the Great Lakes, the largest group of freshwater lakes in the world. Tippecanoe Lake, the deepest lake in the state, reaches depths at nearly 120 feet (37 m), while Lake Wawasee is the largest natural lake in Indiana.[62] At 10,750 acres (summer pool level), Lake Monroe is the largest lake in Indiana.



Climate



Indiana map of Köppen climate classification, now showing half the state as humid subtropical

In the past, almost all of Indiana had a humid continental climate (Dfb), with cold winters and hot, wet summers;[63] only the extreme southern portion of the state lay within the humid subtropical climate (Cfb), which receives more precipitation than other parts of Indiana.[49] But as of the 2016 update, about half the state is now classified as humid subtropical. Temperatures generally diverge from the north and south sections of the state. In midwinter, average high/low temperatures range from around 30 °F/15 °F (−1 °C/−10 °C) in the far north to 41 °F/24 °F (5 °C/−4 °C) in the far south.[64]



In midsummer there is generally a little less variation across the state, as average high/low temperatures range from around 84 °F/64 °F (29 °C/18 °C) in the far north to 90 °F/69 °F (32 °C/21 °C) in the far south.[64] Indiana's record high temperature was 116 °F (47 °C) set on July 14, 1936, at Collegeville. The record low was −36 °F (−38 °C) on January 19, 1994 at New Whiteland. The growing season typically spans from 155 days in the north to 185 days in the south.[citation needed]



While droughts occasionally occur in the state, rainfall totals are distributed relatively equally throughout the year. Precipitation totals range from 35 inches (89 cm) near Lake Michigan in northwest Indiana to 45 inches (110 cm) along the Ohio River in the south, while the state's average is 40 inches (100 cm). Annual snowfall in Indiana varies widely across the state, ranging from 80 inches (200 cm) in the northwest along Lake Michigan to 14 inches (36 cm) in the far south. Lake effect snow accounts for roughly half the snowfall in northwest and north central Indiana due to the effects of the moisture and relative warmth of Lake Michigan upwind. The mean wind speed is 8 miles per hour (13 km/h).[65]



In a 2012 report, Indiana was ranked eighth in a list of the top 20 tornado-prone states based on National Weather Service data from 1950 through 2011.[66] A 2011 report ranked South Bend 15th among the top 20 tornado-prone U.S. cities,[67] while another report from 2011 ranked Indianapolis eighth.[68][69][70] Despite its vulnerability, Indiana is not part of tornado alley.[71]



German is the largest ancestry reported in Indiana, with 22.7% of the population reporting that ancestry in the Census. Persons citing American (12.0%) and English ancestry (8.9%) are also numerous, as are Irish (10.8%) and Polish (3.0%).[90] Most of those citing American ancestry are actually of English descent, but have family that has been in North America for so long, in many cases since the early colonial era, that they identify simply as American.[91][92][93][94] In the 1980 census 1,776,144 people claimed German ancestry, 1,356,135 claimed English ancestry and 1,017,944 claimed Irish ancestry out of a total population of 4,241,975 making the state 42% German, 32% English and 24% Irish.[95]



Population growth

Indiana population map.png

Population growth since 1990 has been concentrated in the counties surrounding Indianapolis, with four of the five fastest-growing counties in that area: Hamilton, Hendricks, Johnson, and Hancock. The other county is Dearborn County, which is near Cincinnati, Ohio. Hamilton County has also grown faster than any county in the states bordering Indiana (Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Kentucky), and is the 20th-fastest growing county in the country.[96]



With a population of 829,817, Indianapolis is the largest city in Indiana and the 12th-largest in the United States, according to the 2010 Census. Three other cities in Indiana have a population greater than 100,000: Fort Wayne (253,617), Evansville (117,429) and South Bend (101,168).[97] Since 2000, Fishers has seen the largest population rise amongst the state's twenty largest cities with an increase of 100 percent.[98]



Gary and Hammond have seen the largest population declines regarding the twenty largest cities since 2000, with a decrease of 21.0 and 6.8 percent respectively.[98] Other cities that have seen extensive growth since 2000 are Greenwood (81 percent), Noblesville (39.4 percent), Carmel (21.4 percent) and Lawrence (9.3 percent). Meanwhile, Evansville (−4.2 percent), Anderson (−4.0 percent) and Muncie (−3.9 percent) have seen the steepest decline.[99] Columbus also saw strong growth (12.8%) in the 2000-2010 period.[100]



Indianapolis has the largest population of the state's metropolitan areas and the 33rd-largest in the country.[101] The Indianapolis metropolitan area encompasses Marion County and nine surrounding counties in central Indiana.



Law and government

Main article: Government of Indiana

See also: United States congressional delegations from Indiana and Indiana's congressional districts







The Indiana Statehouse (top) houses the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of state government. The bicameral Indiana General Assembly consists of the Indiana Senate (middle) and Indiana House of Representatives (bottom).

Indiana has a constitutional democratic republican form of government with three branches: the executive, including an elected governor and lieutenant governor; the legislative, consisting of an elected bicameral General Assembly; and the judicial, the Supreme Court of Indiana, the Indiana Court of Appeals and circuit courts.



The Governor of Indiana serves as the state's chief executive and has the authority to manage the government as established in the Constitution of Indiana. The governor and the lieutenant governor are jointly elected to four-year terms, with gubernatorial elections running concurrently with United States presidential elections (1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, etc.).[125] The governor may not serve more than two consecutive terms.[125] The governor works with the Indiana General Assembly and the Indiana Supreme Court to govern the state and has the authority to adjust the other branches. The governor can call special sessions of the General Assembly and select and remove leaders of nearly all state departments, boards and commissions. Other notable powers include calling out the Indiana Guard Reserve or the Indiana National Guard in times of emergency or disaster, issuing pardons or commuting the sentence of any criminal offenders except in cases of treason or impeachment and possessing an abundant amount of statutory authority.[125][126][127]



The lieutenant governor serves as the President of the Senate and ensures the senate rules are acted in accordance with by its constituents. The lieutenant governor votes only when needed to break ties. If the governor dies in office, becomes permanently incapacitated, resigns or is impeached, the lieutenant governor becomes governor. If both the governor and lieutenant governor positions are unoccupied, the Senate President pro tempore becomes governor.[128]



The Indiana General Assembly is composed of a 50-member Senate and 100-member House of Representatives. The Senate is the upper house of the General Assembly and the House of Representatives is the lower house.[125] The General Assembly has exclusive legislative authority within the state government. Both the Senate and the House can introduce legislation, with the exception that the Senate is not authorized to initiate legislation that will affect revenue. Bills are debated and passed separately in each house, but both houses must pass them before they can be submitted to the Governor.[129] The legislature can nullify a veto from the governor with a majority vote of full membership in the Senate and House of Representatives.[125] Each law passed by the General Assembly must apply without exception to the entire state. The General Assembly has no authority to create legislation that targets a particular community.[129][130] The General Assembly can manage the state's judiciary system by arranging the size of the courts and the bounds of their districts. It also can oversee the activities of the executive branch of the state government, has restricted power to regulate the county governments within the state, and has exclusive power to initiate the method to alter the Indiana Constitution.[129][131]



The Indiana Supreme Court is made up of five judges with a Court of Appeals composed of 15 judges. The governor selects judges for the supreme and appeals courts from a group of applicants chosen by a special commission. After serving for two years, the judges must acquire the support of the electorate to serve for a 10-year term.[125] In nearly all cases, the Supreme Court does not have original jurisdiction and can hear only cases petitioned to it after being heard in lower courts. Local circuit courts are where most cases begin with a trial and the consequence is decided by the jury. The Supreme Court has original and sole jurisdiction in certain areas including the practice of law, discipline or disbarment of Judges appointed to the lower state courts, and supervision over the exercise of jurisdiction by the other lower courts of the State.[132][133]



The state is divided into 92 counties, which are led by a board of county commissioners. 90 counties in Indiana have their own circuit court with a judge elected for a six-year term. The remaining two counties, Dearborn and Ohio, are combined into one circuit. Many counties operate superior courts in addition to the circuit court. In densely populated counties where the caseload is traditionally greater, separate courts have been established to solely hear either juvenile, criminal, probate or small claims cases. The establishment, frequency and jurisdiction of these additional courts vary greatly from county to county. There are 85 city and town courts in Indiana municipalities, created by local ordinance, typically handling minor offenses and not considered courts of record. County officials elected to four-year terms include an auditor, recorder, treasurer, sheriff, coroner and clerk of the circuit court. All incorporated cities in Indiana have a mayor and council form of municipal government. Towns are governed by a town council and townships are governed by a township trustee and advisory board.[125][134]



U.S. News & World Report ranked Indiana first in the publication's inaugural 2017 Best States for Government listing. Among individual categories, Indiana ranked above average in budget transparency (#1), government digitization (#6), and fiscal stability (#8), and ranked average in state integrity (#25).[135]



Politics

Main article: Politics of Indiana

See also: Political party strength in Indiana and United States presidential elections in Indiana

An older man in a tan suit reaches across a table to shake a woman's hand.

Mike Pence at the Indiana State Fair, 2014

From 1880 to 1924, a resident of Indiana was included in all but one presidential election. Indiana Representative William Hayden English was nominated for vice president and ran with Winfield Scott Hancock in the 1880 election.[136] Former Indiana Governor Thomas A. Hendricks was elected vice president in 1884. He served until his death on November 25, 1885, under President Grover Cleveland.[137] In 1888, former Senator from Indiana Benjamin Harrison was elected president and served one term. He remains the only President from Indiana. Indiana Senator Charles W. Fairbanks was elected vice president in 1904, serving under President Theodore Roosevelt until 1909.[138] Fairbanks made another run for vice president with Charles Evans Hughes in 1916, but they both lost to Woodrow Wilson and former Indiana Governor Thomas R. Marshall, who served as vice president from 1913 until 1921.[139] Not until 1988 did another presidential election involve a native of Indiana when Senator Dan Quayle was elected vice president and served one term with George H. W. Bush.[49] Governor Mike Pence was elected vice president in 2016, to serve with Donald Trump.



Indiana has long been considered a Republican stronghold,[140][141] particularly in Presidential races. The Cook Partisan Voting Index (CPVI) now rates Indiana as R+9. Indiana was one of only ten states to support Republican Wendell Willkie in 1940.[49] On 14 occasions the Republican candidate has defeated the Democrat by a double-digit margin in the state, including six times where a Republican won the state by more than twenty percentage points.[142] In 2000 and 2004 George W. Bush won the state by a wide margin while the election was much closer overall. The state has supported a Democrat for president only five times since 1900. In 1912, Woodrow Wilson became the first Democrat to win the state in the twentieth century, with 43% of the vote. Twenty years later, Franklin D. Roosevelt won the state with 55% of the vote over incumbent Republican Herbert Hoover. Roosevelt won the state again in 1936. In 1964, 56% of voters supported Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson over Republican Barry Goldwater. Forty-four years later, Democrat Barack Obama narrowly won the state against John McCain 50% to 49%.[143] In the following election, Republican Mitt Romney won back the state for the Republican Party with 54% of the vote over the incumbent President Obama who won 43%.[144]



While only five Democratic presidential nominees have carried Indiana since 1900, 11 Democrats were elected governor during that time. Before Mitch Daniels became governor in 2005, Democrats had held the office for 16 consecutive years. Indiana elects two senators and nine representatives to Congress. The state has 11 electoral votes in presidential elections.[142] Seven of the districts favor the Republican Party according to the CPVI rankings; there are seven Republicans serving as representatives and two Democrats. Historically, Republicans have been strongest in the eastern and central portions of the state, while Democrats have been strongest in the northwestern part of the state. Occasionally, certain counties in the southern part of the state will vote Democratic. Marion County, Indiana's most populous county, supported the Republican candidates from 1968 to 2000, before backing the Democrats in the 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2020 elections. Indiana's second-most populous county, Lake County, strongly supports the Democratic party and has not voted for a Republican since 1972.[142] In 2005, the Bay Area Center for Voting Research rated the most liberal and conservative cities in the United States on voting statistics in the 2004 presidential election, based on 237 cities with populations of more than 100,000. Five Indiana cities were mentioned in the study. On the liberal side, Gary was ranked second and South Bend came in at 83. Among conservative cities, Fort Wayne was 44th, Evansville was 60th and Indianapolis was 82nd on the list.[145]



Motorsports



Indianapolis is home to the annual Indianapolis 500 race.

Indiana has an extensive history with auto racing. Indianapolis hosts the Indianapolis 500 mile race over Memorial Day weekend at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway every May. The name of the race is usually shortened to "Indy 500" and also goes by the nickname "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing". The race attracts more than 250,000 people every year, making it the largest single-day sporting event in the world. The track also hosts the Brickyard 400 (NASCAR) and the Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix. From 2000 to 2007, it hosted the United States Grand Prix (Formula One). Indiana features the world's largest and most prestigious drag race, the NHRA Mac Tools U.S. Nationals, held each Labor Day weekend at Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis in Clermont, Indiana. Indiana is also host to a major unlimited hydroplane racing power boat race circuits in the major H1 Unlimited league, the Madison Regatta (Madison, Indiana).



Professional sports



The Indianapolis Colts of the National Football League have been based in the state since 1984.

As of 2013 Indiana has produced more National Basketball Association (NBA) players per capita than any other state. Muncie has produced the most per capita of any American city, with two other Indiana cities in the top ten.[146] It has a rich basketball heritage that reaches back to the sport's formative years. The NBA's Indiana Pacers play their home games at Bankers Life Fieldhouse; they began play in 1967 in the American Basketball Association (ABA) and joined the NBA when the leagues merged in 1976. Although James Naismith developed basketball in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1891, high school basketball was born in Indiana. In 1925, Naismith visited an Indiana basketball state finals game along with 15,000 screaming fans and later wrote "Basketball really had its origin in Indiana, which remains the center of the sport." The 1986 film Hoosiers is inspired by the story of the 1954 Indiana state champions Milan High School. Professional basketball player Larry Bird was born in West Baden Springs and was raised in French Lick. He went on to lead the Boston Celtics to the NBA championship in 1981, 1984, and 1986.[147]



Indianapolis is home to the Indianapolis Colts. The Colts are members of the South Division of the American Football Conference. The Colts have roots back to 1913 as the Dayton Triangles. They became an official team after moving to Baltimore, MD, in 1953. In 1984, the Colts relocated to Indianapolis, leading to an eventual rivalry with the Baltimore Ravens. After calling the RCA Dome home for 25 years, the Colts play their home games at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. While in Baltimore, the Colts won the 1970 Super Bowl. In Indianapolis, the Colts won Super Bowl XLI, bringing the franchise total to two. In recent years the Colts have regularly competed in the NFL playoffs.



Indiana was home to two charter members of the National Football League teams, the Hammond Pros and the Muncie Flyers. Another early NFL franchise, the Evansville Crimson Giants spent two seasons in the league before folding.