Horatio Emmons Hale (May 3, 1817 – December 28, 1896) was an American-Canadian

ethnologist Ethnology (from the grc-gre, ἔθνος, meaning 'nation') is an academic field that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology) ...

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...

and businessman. He is known for his study of languages as a key for classifying ancient peoples and being able to trace their migrations. Hale was the first to analyze and confirm that the

Tutelo language Tutelo, also known as Tutelo people, Tutelo–Saponi people, Saponi, is a member of the Virginian branch of Siouan languages that were originally spoken in the territory now known as Virginia and West Virginia in the United States. Some speakers ...

of some

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

Native Americans belonged to the

Siouan Siouan or Siouan–Catawban is a language family of North America that is located primarily in the Great Plains, Ohio and Mississippi valleys and southeastern North America with a few other languages in the east. Name Authors who call the enti ...

family, which was most associated with the western

Dakota Dakota may refer to: * Dakota people, a sub-tribe of the Sioux ** Dakota language, their language Dakota may also refer to: Places United States * Dakota, Georgia, an unincorporated community * Dakota, Illinois, a town * Dakota, Minnesota, ...

and

Hidatsa The Hidatsa are a Siouan people. They are enrolled in the federally recognized Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota. Their language is related to that of the Crow, and they are sometimes considered a parent t ...

languages. Hale also determined that the

Cherokee language 200px, Number of speakers Cherokee or Tsalagi ( chr, ᏣᎳᎩ ᎦᏬᏂᎯᏍᏗ, ) is an endangered-to-moribund Iroquoian language and the native language of the Cherokee people. ''Ethnologue'' states that there were 1,520 Cherokee speaker ...

spoken by a tribe associated with the Appalachian Mountains and upland areas of the interior American Southeast was one of the

Iroquoian The Iroquoian languages are a language family of indigenous peoples of North America. They are known for their general lack of labial consonants. The Iroquoian languages are polysynthetic and head-marking. As of 2020, all surviving Iroquoian la ...

family of languages. Most of the speakers of the latter had historically occupied territory to the east and south of the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lakes ...

, in present-day New York and Pennsylvania. In addition, he published a work, ''Iroquois Book of Rites'' (1883), based on his translation of their only two known historic manuscripts. It was supported by his studies with tribal elders in interpreting the Iroquois

wampum belt Wampum is a traditional shell bead of the Eastern Woodlands tribes of Native Americans. It includes white shell beads hand-fashioned from the North Atlantic channeled whelk shell and white and purple beads made from the quahog or Western Nor ...

s to establish the people's prehistory.

Early life and education

Horatio Hale was born on May 3, 1817, at

Newport, New Hampshire Newport is a town in and the county seat of Sullivan County, New Hampshire, United States. It is west-northwest of Concord, the state capital. The population of Newport was 6,299 at the 2020 census. A covered bridge is in the northwest. The ar ...

, in the United States, the son of David Hale, a lawyer, and of

Sarah Josepha Hale Sarah Josepha Buell Hale (October 24, 1788April 30, 1879) was an American writer, activist, and editor of ''Godey's Lady's Book''. She was the author of the nursery rhyme "Mary Had a Little Lamb". Hale famously campaigned for the creation of the ...

(née Buell). After the death of her husband, Sarah Josepha Hale turned to writing and became a prominent magazine editor. Entering

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...

in 1833, Hale showed a marked faculty for languages. His first original work was published the next year, and attracted the attention of the college authorities. It consisted of an Algonkin vocabulary, which he gathered from a band of Indians who had camped on the college grounds.

United States Exploring Expedition

Three years later, when the

United States Exploring Expedition The United States Exploring Expedition of 1838–1842 was an exploring and surveying expedition of the Pacific Ocean and surrounding lands conducted by the United States. The original appointed commanding officer was Commodore Thomas ap Catesby ...

was organized under

Charles Wilkes Charles Wilkes (April 3, 1798 – February 8, 1877) was an American naval officer, ship's captain, and explorer. He led the United States Exploring Expedition (1838–1842). During the American Civil War (1861–1865), he commanded ' during the ...

, Hale was recommended, while yet an undergraduate, for the post of ethnologist and philologist. He was appointed to the position. From 1838 to 1842, Hale worked with the expedition, visiting

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

Australasia Australasia is a region that comprises Australia, New Zealand and some neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term is used in a number of different contexts, including geopolitically, physiogeographically, philologically, and ecologica ...

Polynesia Polynesia () "many" and νῆσος () "island"), to, Polinisia; mi, Porinihia; haw, Polenekia; fj, Polinisia; sm, Polenisia; rar, Porinetia; ty, Pōrīnetia; tvl, Polenisia; tkl, Polenihia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, made up of ...

, and North-western America, then known as

Oregon Country Oregon Country was a large region of the Pacific Northwest of North America that was subject to a long dispute between the United Kingdom and the United States in the early 19th century. The area, which had been created by the Treaty of 1818, co ...

. From this point he returned overland. The

Hale Passage Hale Passage is the name of two different bodies of water in Puget Sound, in the U.S. state of Washington. *In the north Sound, in Whatcom County, Hale Passage separates Lummi Island from the mainland near Bellingham. *In the south Sound in Pier ...

s of

Puget Sound Puget Sound ( ) is a sound of the Pacific Northwest, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and part of the Salish Sea. It is located along the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected ma ...

were named in recognition of his service to the expedition. The expedition traveled also to Polynesia. Of the reports of that expedition, Hale prepared the sixth volume, ''Ethnography and Philology'' (1846), which is said to have laid the foundations of the ethnography of

Personal life

Having completed his degree of M. A. at Harvard, Hale made a short tour of Europe. On his return, he studied law, and was admitted to the

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

bar in 1855. In 1854, at

Jersey City, New Jersey Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark. Her father William was formerly

justice of the peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

for the township of Goderich in Huron County, Canada West (now Ontario). In 1856, the Hales moved to Clinton, Ontario, Canada, where he administered the estate of his father-in-law. He began to get involved in local

real estate development Real estate development, or property development, is a business process, encompassing activities that range from the renovation and re-lease of existing buildings to the purchase of raw Real Estate, land and the sale of developed land or parcels ...

and other business and educational endeavours. He continued to reside in Clinton until his death, devoting much attention to the development of the Ontario school system. He was influential in introducing co-education of the sexes in high schools and collegiate institutes, in increasing the grants to these institutions, in establishing the normal school system for training of teachers, and in improving the methods of examination.

Native American studies

In Canada Hale returned to his study of First Nations and Native Americans. He was mentored by the

Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

chiefs

George Henry Martin Johnson George Henry Martin Johnson (''Onwanonsyshon'') (October 7, 1816 – February 19, 1884) was a member of the Wolf clan and selected as a hereditary tribal chief, chief of the Mohawk nation, Mohawk of the Iroquois, Six Nations in Canada; he al ...

and John Fraser, whom he met while visiting the

Six Nations of the Grand River First Nation Six Nations (or Six Nations of the Grand River, french: Réserve des Six Nations, see, Ye:i’ Níónöëdzage:h) is demographically the largest First Nations reserve in Canada. As of the end of 2017, it has a total of 27,276 members, 12,848 of w ...

in Ontario. In addition he traveled to the United States to consult with other native informants. Hale documented the oral history and rituals of the

Iroquois Confederacy The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

. He was assisted in interpreting the group's wampum belts, which recounted their history. As a result of this work, he published ''The Iroquois Book of Rites'' (1883). He also studied the Iroquois languages, determining that

Mohawk Mohawk may refer to: Related to Native Americans * Mohawk people, an indigenous people of North America (Canada and New York) *Mohawk language, the language spoken by the Mohawk people * Mohawk hairstyle, from a hairstyle once thought to have been ...

was the oldest. He also concluded that the Laurentian languages were

. Archeologists and linguists have since confirmed that the

St. Lawrence Iroquoians The St. Lawrence Iroquoians were an Iroquoian Indigenous people who existed from the 14th century to about 1580. They concentrated along the shores of the St. Lawrence River in present-day Quebec and Ontario, Canada, and in the American states o ...

were an early people who had occupied territory in what is now considered upper New England and along the

St. Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (french: Fleuve Saint-Laurent, ) is a large river in the middle latitudes of North America. Its headwaters begin flowing from Lake Ontario in a (roughly) northeasterly direction, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, connecting ...

in Quebec and Ontario from about the 14th century to about 1580. They were likely destroyed by the

from central New York, who were competing for control of hunting grounds and the

fur trade The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period, furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the mos ...

. Hale made many valuable contributions to the science of

ethnology Ethnology (from the grc-gre, ἔθνος, meaning 'nation') is an academic field that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural anthropology, cultural, social anthropolo ...

, attracting attention particularly by his theory of the origin of the diversities of

human language Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of met ...

s and

dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of Linguistics, linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety (linguisti ...

s. This was inspired by his study of child languages, or the languages invented by young children. He also emphasized the importance of languages as tests of mental capacity, and demonstrated that Native American languages were complex and had a high capacity for classification. He used language as a criterion for the classification of human groups. He was the first to discover that the

belonged to the

family, which was more commonly associated with the Dakotan and

languages and tribes located to the west of the Great Lakes and Mississippi River. He was also the first to identify the

as a member of the

family of languages. By the colonial and federal period, the

Cherokee people The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, th ...

were primarily located in the southern interior of present-day Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia and Alabama. Most of their members were among the Southeastern tribes forced during

Indian Removal Indian removal was the United States government policy of forced displacement of self-governing tribes of Native Americans from their ancestral homelands in the eastern United States to lands west of the Mississippi Riverspecifically, to a de ...

of the 1830s to relocate to territory west of the Mississippi River, in what was reserved for a time as

Indian Territory The Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the Federal government of the United States, United States Government for the relocation of Native Americans in the United St ...

(now the state of Oklahoma).

Honours

Hale never received a doctorate but his research was recognised through his roles in a number of academic societies. In 1872, Hale was elected as a member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

. In 1884, he reorganised the section of anthropology as an independent department of the

British Association for the Advancement of Science The British Science Association (BSA) is a charity and learned society founded in 1831 to aid in the promotion and development of science. Until 2009 it was known as the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BA). The current Chie ...

, at its meeting in Montreal that year. He had already performed a like service for the American Association. At the request of the British committee, he undertook the supervision of the anthropological section's work in the Canadian North-west and British Columbia. The reports, which are very elaborate, were published in the Association's ''Proceedings'' from 1885 to 1897. While Hale continued as a member of the committee, he was asked to accept the position of vice-president at the Association's meeting in Toronto (1896); he declined due to ill-health. Hale was also a member of the American Folklore Society, serving as its President in 1893. Hale was an honorary fellow of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain, to which he contributed a number of papers.

Death

Hale died on 29 December 1896 at Clinton, Ontario. In an appreciation of his life,

Franz Boas Franz Uri Boas (July 9, 1858 – December 21, 1942) was a German-American anthropologist and a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology". His work is associated with the movements known as historical ...

wrote: "Ethnology has lost a man who contributed more to the knowledge of human race than perhaps any student”.

Selected publications

*Hale, Horatio (1846). ''Ethnography and philology''. Philadelphia, Pa.: Lea and Blanchard.

OCLC OCLC, Inc., doing business as OCLC, See also: is an American nonprofit cooperative organization "that provides shared technology services, original research, and community programs for its membership and the library community at large". It was ...

222779990. *Hale, Horatio (1881). ''Hiawatha and the Iroquois confederation: a study in anthropology''.

1957917. *Hale, Horatio (1883). "The Tutelo Tribe and Language". ''Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society''. 21 (114): 1–47.

ISSN An International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) is an eight-digit serial number used to uniquely identify a serial publication, such as a magazine. The ISSN is especially helpful in distinguishing between serials with the same title. ISSNs ...

0003-049X. *Hale, Horatio (1883). ''Indian migrations, as evidenced by language: comprising the Huron-Cherokee stock, the Dakota stock, the Algonkins, the Chahta-Muskoki stock, the Moundbuilders, the Iberians''. Chicago: Jameson & Morse.

14635656. * Hale, Horatio (1886). ''The origin of languages, and the antiquity of speaking man. An address before the Section of anthropology of the American association for the advancement of science, at Buffalo, August, 1886''. Cambridge: John Wilson and Son.

12601731. * Hale, Horatio (1888). ''The development of language. A paper read before the Canadian Institute, Toronto, April, 1888''. Toronto: The Copp, Clark Company, Limited.

32636576. * Hale, Horatio (1891). ''Language as a test of mental capacity: being an attempt to demonstrate the true basis of anthropology''.

1048996952. * * * *

References

;Attribution

External links

* *
Anthropology Biographies--Horatio Hale
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hale, Horatio 1817 births 1896 deaths People from Newport, New Hampshire American people of English descent Harvard College alumni American anthropologists American ethnologists People from Huron County, Ontario People of the United States Exploring Expedition Linguists of Na-Dene languages Linguists of indigenous languages of North America Presidents of the American Folklore Society