Berard Haile

{{Short description|Missionary, anthropologist, and linguist (1874–1961)}}

{{Infobox clergy

| honorific_prefix = Father

| name = Berard Haile

| honorific_suffix = O.F.M.

| image =

| image_size =

| alt =

| caption =

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1874|06|01}}

| birth_place = Canton, Ohio

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1961|09|30|1874|06|01}}

| death_place = Santa Fe, New Mexico

| education = Catholic University of America, MA, 1929

| occupation = missionary • linguist • anthropologist

| years_active = 1901–1954

| religion = Roman Catholic

| ordained = June 29, 1898

| writings =

| congregations =

| offices_held =

| title =

| website =

| signature =

| signature_alt =

| footnotes =

| child =

}}

Father Berard Haile (1874–1961), O.F.M. (born Jacob Christopher Heile){{Cite journal |last=Lyon |first=William H. |date=1987 |title=Ednishodi Yazhe: The Little Priest and the Understanding of Navajo Culture |url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5bk898zn |journal=American Indian Culture and Research Journal |volume=11 |issue=1 |pages=1-41}} was a Franciscan priest and one of the foremost authorities on Navajo anthropology.Fr. Roldan Parker, O.F.M. "Scholar to the Navajo", St. Anthony Messenger, September, 1962, pp. 36-39 He entered the Franciscan Order in 1891 and was ordained a priest on June 29, 1898. He served at St. Michael's Mission, a Franciscan mission to the Navajo at St. Michaels, Arizona, and at other missions in the Southwest, from 1901 to 1954, where he developed an interest in Navajo language and culture.{{Citation | last = Herzfeld | first = Regina Flannery | title = Berard Haile, O.F.M. (1874-1961) | journal = Anthropological Quarterly | volume = 35 | issue = 1 | pages = 33–34 | year = 1962 | jstor = 3316699 }}{{Citation | last = Hellmann | first = George | title = A Necrology of Friars of the Custody & Province of St. John Baptist,... | place = Cincinnati, Ohio | publisher = Franciscan Archives Cincinnati, Province of St. John Baptist, Order of Friars Minor | year = 1999 | url = http://www.tnfeldhaus.com/necrology.pdf }}{{Citation | last = Powell | first = Donald M. | title = A Preliminary Bibliography of the Published Writings of Berard Haile, O.F.M. | journal = Kiva | volume = 26 | issue = 4 | pages = 44–47 | year = 1961 | doi = 10.1080/00231940.1961.11757618 | jstor = 30246993 }} He helped devise a written alphabet of the Navajo language and published a four volume work on learning Navajo.Haile, Berard. (1941–1948). Learning Navaho, (Vols. 1–4). St. Michaels, AZ: St. Michael's Mission. In 1929 Haile attended the Catholic University of America and obtained a master's degree. He considered pursuing a doctorate degree in linguistics at the University of Vienna, but instead accepted the position of Research Associate in Anthropology at the University of Chicago. He made a field trip with Edward Sapir through Navajo land that was sponsored by the Laboratory of Anthropology at Santa Fe, New Mexico. Haile devised a new Navajo alphabet containing over sixty characters. His alphabet met with resistance from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, who preferred John Peabody Harrington's orthography. Haile's other major work dealt with the creation story of the Navajo, Diné Bahaneʼ.Haile, Berard. Origin Legend of the Navajo Enemy Way. New Haven: Yale University Press. Yale University Publications in Anthropology, no. 17, 1938.

Haile was awarded a Doctor of Letters degree from St. Bonaventure University in 1951, and a Doctor of Laws degree in 1952 from the University of New Mexico. In 1953 the Navajo Tribal Council passed a resolution which read in part: "Father Berard Haile has spent his life among the Navajo people learning to know and understand us and our religion, and has, more than any other living non-Indian, through close contact with Navajos and the medicine men of our tribe and by his indefatigable labor, reduced our language to written form and succeeded in preserving for future generations the knowledge of the Navajo history and religion."{{Citation | last = Bodo | first = Murray | title = Tales of an Endishodi: Father Berard Haile and the Navajos, 1900-1961 | place = Albuquerque, NM | publisher = University of New Mexico Press | year = 1998 | page = 224 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=S211AAAAMAAJ | isbn = 0-8263-1829-0 }}