Are you a Michigander or a Michiganian?
In the eyes of the state Legislature, Michigander is the official term for the residents of Michigan and they have a bill that passed unanimously in both the House and Senate this week to prove it.
Tucked into an obscure package of bills that modernizes the 1913 statute creating the Michigan Historical Commission is a passage that strikes out a reference to Michiganians in favor of Michiganders.
The bill says the Historical Commission shall “encourage the public to preserve historic resources and to develop a sense of identity as Michiganders.” The initial reference to Michiganian is crossed out.
While the first use of Michigander to describe the residents of the Great Lakes State is unclear, it was used by then Illinois Congressman Abraham Lincoln in a speech that was meant to insult Michigan Gov. Lewis Cass, who was running for president at the time in 1848, according to the blog Mitten History.
For the full article, see Kathleen Gray, “Michiganders or Michiganians? Lawmakers settle it”, Detroit Free Press, November 2, 2017