Horatio Hale

Who was Horatio Hale?

Horatio Emmons Hale was an American-Canadian ethnologist, philologist and businessman who studied language as a key for classifying ancient peoples and being able to trace their migrations. He was the first to discover that the Tutelo language of Virginia belonged to the Siouan family, and to identify the Cherokee language as a member of the Iroquoian family of languages. In addition, he published a work Iroquois Book of Rites, based on interpreting the Iroquois wampum belts, as well as his studies with tribal leaders.

After his marriage to a Canadian woman in 1855, Hale moved to Ontario. He continued to publish articles in American scholarly journals, while living in Canada for the rest of his life.