Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 51.djvu/416

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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

great age—reputed, indeed, to be over a century old—who was believed to be the last full-blooded survivor of the once numerous Tutelo tribe. This tribe formerly inhabited Virginia and North Carolina, and migrated thence in the last century to Pennsylvania and New York, where they united with the Iroquois "nations," and finally removed with them to Canada. Mr. Hale visited this old man, and obtained from him and some intelligent half-castes (of Tutelo-Iroquois origin) an extensive vocabulary of their language, with many historical facts, which showed them to be beyond question members of the great Dakota (or Siouan) stock of the far West. It also appeared that other tribes near them spoke the same language. The fact that septs of their widespread family anciently dwelt east of the Alleghanies, and in all probability occupied this North Atlantic portion of the continent before its invasion by the Iroquois and Algonkin tribes, was an important and unexpected addition to aboriginal history. The particulars of this discovery were given in a paper of considerable length, entitled The Tutelo Tribe and Language, which appeared in the Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, and was thence reprinted in pamphlet form. It naturally aroused much interest among American ethnologists.

In 1882 Mr. Hale, as a member of a committee of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, which met in that year in Montreal, took part in organizing the first meeting of the Section of Anthropology in that association; and, somewhat remarkably, two years later in the same city he was one of the committee of the British Association which organized the first meeting of the like section in that world-renowned society. These facts afford evidence both of the recent rise and progress of this branch of science and of the position held by Mr. Hale among its cultivators. At this meeting of the British Association a proposal of the first president of the new section, the distinguished anthropologist. Dr. E. B. Tylor, resulted in the appointment of a committee "to investigate the physical character, languages, and industrial and social condition of the Northwestern tribes of the Dominion of Canada." Of this committee Mr. Hale was a member, having among his colleagues the late eminent President of Toronto University, Sir Daniel Wilson, and Dr. G. M. Dawson, of the Geological Survey of Canada. In compliance with the unanimous request of his colleagues, Mr. Hale undertook the office of director of the investigations and editor of the reports—an office which, under the rules of the association, involved his temporary withdrawal from the committee. Of these reports eight have already appeared, and another, designed to be the final report, is now (January, 1895) in course of preparation. The first report, which was on the Tribes of the Blackfoot