Horatio Hale

Horatio Hale
Born	Horatio Emmons Hale May 3, 1817 Newport, New Hampshire
Died	December 28, 1896 Clinton, Ontario,Canada
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Harvard University
Scientific career
Fields	ethnology

Horatio Emmons Hale(May 3, 1817 – December 28, 1896) was an American-Canadianethnologist,philologistand 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 theTutelo languageof someVirginiaNative Americans belonged to theSiouanfamily, which was most associated with the westernDakotaandHidatsa languages.

Hale also determined that theCherokee languagespoken by a tribe associated with theAppalachian Mountainsand upland areas of the interior American Southeast was one of theIroquoianfamily of languages.Most of the speakers of the latter had historically occupied territory to the east and south of theGreat 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 Iroquoiswampum beltsto establish the people's prehistory.

Early life and education

Horatio Hale was born on May 3, 1817, atNewport, New Hampshire,in the United States, the son of David Hale, a lawyer, and ofSarah Josepha Hale(née Buell). After the death of her husband, Sarah Josepha Hale turned to writing and became a prominent magazine editor.

EnteringHarvard Collegein 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 anAlgonkianvocabulary, which he gathered from a band of Native Americans who had camped on the college grounds.

United States Exploring Expedition

Three years later, when theUnited States Exploring Expeditionwas organized underCharles Wilkes,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, visitingSouth America,Australasia,Polynesia,and north-western America, then known asOregon Country.From this point he returned overland. TheHale PassagesofPuget Soundwere named in recognition of his service to the expedition.

The expedition also traveled 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 Polynesia.

Personal life

Having completed his master's degree at Harvard, Hale made a short tour of Europe. On his return, he studied law, and was admitted to theChicagobar in 1855. In 1854, atJersey City, New Jersey,he married Margaret Pugh, whom he met in Ontario.Her father William was formerlyjustice of the peacefor the township ofGoderichinHuron County, Canada West(now Ontario).

In 1856, the Hales moved toClinton, Ontario,Canada, where he administered the estate of his father-in-law.He began to get involved in localreal estate developmentand 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 theIroquoischiefsGeorge Henry Martin Johnsonand John Fraser, whom he met while visiting theSix Nations of the Grand River First Nationin Ontario. In addition he traveled to the United States to consult with other native informants. Hale documented the oral history and rituals of theIroquois Confederacy.He was assisted in interpreting the group'swampum belts,which recounted their history.As a result of this work, he publishedThe Iroquois Book of Rites(1883). He also studied the Iroquois languages, determining thatMohawkwas the oldest. He also concluded that theLaurentianlanguages wereIroquoian.

Archeologists and linguists have since confirmed that theSt. Lawrence Iroquoianswere an early people who had occupied territory in what is now considered upper New England and along theSt. Lawrence Riverin Quebec and Ontario from about the 14th century to about 1580.They were likely destroyed by theMohawkfrom central New York, who were competing for control of hunting grounds and thefur trade.

Hale made many valuable contributions to the science ofethnology,attracting attention particularly by his theory of the origin of the diversities ofhuman languagesanddialects.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 theTutelo languageofVirginiabelonged to theSiouanfamily,which was more commonly associated with theDakotaandHidatsa languagesand tribes located to the west of the Great Lakes and Mississippi River.

He was also the first to identify theCherokee languageas a member of the Iroquoian family of languages.By the colonial and federal period, theCherokee peoplewere 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 to relocate during theIndian removalof the 1830s to territory west of the Mississippi River, in what was reserved for a time asIndian Territory(now the state of Oklahoma).

Honours

Hale never received a doctorate but his research was recognized through his roles in a number of academic societies.

In 1872, Hale was elected as a member of theAmerican Philosophical Society.

In 1884, he reorganized the section of anthropology as an independent department of theBritish Association for the Advancement of Science,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'sProceedingsfrom 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 theAnthropological Institute of Great Britain,to which he contributed a number of papers.

Death

Hale died on December 29, 1896, in Clinton, Ontario.In an appreciation of his life,Franz Boaswrote: "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.OCLC222779990.
• Hale, Horatio (1881).Hiawatha and the Iroquois confederation: a study in anthropology.OCLC1957917.
• Hale, Horatio (1883). "The Tutelo Tribe and Language".Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society.21(114): 1–47.ISSN0003-049X.
• 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.OCLC14635656.
• 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.OCLC12601731.
• Hale, Horatio (1888).The development of language. A paper read before the Canadian Institute, Toronto, April, 1888.Toronto: The Copp, Clark Company, Limited.OCLC32636576.
• Hale, Horatio (1891).Language as a test of mental capacity: being an attempt to demonstrate the true basis of anthropology.OCLC1048996952.
• Hale, H (1892),"The Klamath Nation: I.--The Country and the People.",Science,19(465) (published January 1, 1892): 6–7,doi:10.1126/science.ns-19.465.6,PMID17813801
• Hale, H (1892),"The Klamath Nation: II.--Linguistics",Science,vol. 19, no. 466 (published January 8, 1892), pp. 20–21,doi:10.1126/science.ns-19.466.20,PMID17774144
• Hale, H (1892),"The Klamath Nation: III.--Mythology and General Ethnology",Science,vol. 19, no. 467 (published January 15, 1892), pp. 29–31,doi:10.1126/science.ns-19.467.29,PMID17731636
• Hale, H (1895),"An International Scientific Catalogue and Congress",Science,1(12) (published March 22, 1895): 324–326,doi:10.1126/science.1.12.324,PMID17829255

References

Attribution:

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:Browning, Thomas Blair (1901). "Hale, Horatio".InLee, Sidney(ed.).Dictionary of National Biography(1st supplement).London: Smith, Elder & Co.

External links

• Works by Horatio HaleatProject Gutenberg
• Works by or about Horatio Haleat theInternet Archive
• Anthropology Biographies–Horatio Hale