Adams] 



SHONTO: ROLE OF NAVAHO TRADER 



31 



Kenowned along with the natural features of the region is its 

 Navaho Indian population, believed by photographers and travelers 

 to be exceptionally picturesque. Scattered Navaho settlements from 

 Kayenta to Kaibito and from Black Mesa to the San Juan are served 

 by a string of isolated and more or less primitive trading posts (see 

 maps 1 and 2), the last outposts of Anglo-American penetration in 

 Navaho Land. Among these is Shonto Trading Post, focus of the 

 present study. 



PHYSICAL SETTING 



Primary access to the northwestern Navaho country is afforded by a 

 graded road leaving paved U.S. 89 sixty-five miles north of Flag- 

 staff, Ariz., and proceeding northwest for 13 miles along the Moencopi 

 Valley to Tuba City (see map 1) . This little community of some 200 



Map 2. — Northwestern Navaho Reservation. 



