Adams] SHONTO : ROLE OF NAVAHO TRADER 33 



Among them, the Shonto trading community occupies roughly the 

 southwestern quarter of the total Shonto Plateau highland. 



Shonto Trading Post is located in the central of three parallel 

 canyons draining the Shonto Plateau to the south, about 8 miles up- 

 stream from its mouth. The area regularly served by it, termed the 

 Shonto Community in this study, is delimited to the east and west by 

 the first and third of the canyons — the deep and almost impassable 

 Tsegi to the east and the much smaller Cow Springs Canyon to the 

 west. To the north and south, respectively, the extreme limits of 

 the community are set by the northern scarp of the Shonto Plateau 

 at Cow Canyon (not the same as Cow Springs Canyon), and by the 

 northern scrap of Black Mesa at Klethla Valley. The irregular area 

 thus defined has very roughly the shape of a higlily elongated tri- 

 angle, with its long dimension north-south and its base at the south. 

 Maximum dimensions are about 30 miles north-south and 15 miles 

 east-west. 



Adjacent to Shonto on all sides are other tradmg communities, each 

 called after the store which supplies it. To the west, the area between 

 Cow Springs Canyon and Navajo Canyon is the Inscription House 

 area; beyond Navajo Canyon lies the Kaibito community. Northwest 

 of Shonto, the Navajo Mountain community occupies the Rainbow 

 Plateau and Paiute Mesa. Far to the northeast, the Oljeto (or 

 Oljetoh, Oljato) area includes Cow Canyon and the low mesas north 

 of it. Many of the people here traded at Shonto, commg up from Cow 

 Canyon on a very rough horse trail, until their area was made acces- 

 sible from Oljeto by construction of a uranium road in 1953. Skeleton 

 Mesa, the connected highland northeast of Shonto, remains unin- 

 habited. Further south, Tsegi Canyon and adjacent Marsh Pass and 

 Long House Valley belong to the Tsegi area served by a small Navaho- 

 owned store in Marsh Pass. The lowland areas east of Marsh Pass 

 trade at Kayenta, where three trading posts are now located. 



Due south of Shonto, the northern portion of immense Black Mesa 

 is unique in having no trading post of its own. The widely scattered 

 Navaho population trade principally at Shonto, but also at Red Lake, 

 Cow Springs, Tsegi, and Kayenta, all located at the foot of the mesa. 

 Cow Springs and Red Lake, jointly owned and operated until recently 

 as a single enterprise, are located southwest of Shonto. Both serve the 

 heavily agricultural settlements of lower Klethla Valley. Beyond 

 them lies the Tuba City community. 



TOPOGRAPHY 



The Shonto area spans the entire width of the Shonto Plateau from 

 north to south, and its elevations and topography are such as have 

 been described for the region in general. In addition to the overall 

 north-south slope, there is a secondary slope from the rim of Tsegi 



