Published in 1890, Horatio Hale’s An International Idiom; A Manual of the Oregon Trade Language, or "Chinook Jargon" presents a sophisticated linguistic defense of the Pacific Northwest's unique contact language as a viable instrument for broader human communication. Building upon his earlier work as the philologist for the 1838-1842 Wilkes Exploring Expedition, Hale meticulously outlines the grammar and vocabulary of the Chinook Jargon while arguing that its cross-cultural adaptability rendered it a legitimate "international idiom." A keen insight drawn from the text is how Hale’s late-19th-century academic elevation of the Jargon stands as a paradoxical act of preservation; even as the pidgin was rapidly dying out due to aggressive English-only assimilation policies and the physical displacement of Indigenous populations, he framed its historical utility as proof of a harmonious, multicultural genesis that conveniently sanitized the brutal realities of frontier conquest.