Horatio Hale

Horatio Hale pursued ethnology and linguistics through fieldwork that linked language with the histories and migrations of Indigenous peoples. American-born, he served as philologist on the United States Exploring Expedition and later continued his research in Canada. His comparative work includes Was America peopled from Polynesia a study in comparative philology 1890 and Indian Migrations, as Evidenced by Language. Chief George H.M. Johnson, Onwanonsyshon and Hiawatha and the Iroquois Confederation A Study in Anthropology. A Paper Read at the Cincinnati Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement … the Title of ‘A Lawgiver of the Stone Age’ reflect his sustained engagement with Haudenosaunee history and political tradition. The Origin of Languages, and the Antiquity of Speaking Man addresses broader questions about human speech, while Two Essays in Folk-Lore studies oral tradition and the meanings embedded in language. Hale worked with George Henry Martin Johnson, also known as Onwanonsyshon, and treated Indigenous accounts as important historical and ethnological evidence. His career helped establish language as a central tool of North American anthropology.