Preface 



The field investigations upon which this study is based were carried 

 out between 1954 and 1956, and the report itself was completed in the 

 following year. No changes or additions have been made to the 

 text since it was originally written. The reader of today will thus find 

 no mention of many important events and developments that have 

 occurred during the past 5 years. 



The years since 1957 have brought dramatic changes to the Navaho 

 country, some of which were foreseen when the Shonto report was 

 written, while others have come as a surprise, at least to the author. 

 Today an expanding network of paved highways criss-crosses the 

 Navaho Keservation, and such pioneer settlements as Tuba City and 

 Kayenta are being transformed into typical American crossroads 

 towns, with their clusters of filling stations, cafes, motels, and even 

 movie houses. A paved road passes within 10 miles of Shonto itself, 

 and a new, 300-pupil boarding school will soon be completed on the 

 rim of Shonto Canyon. Within a few years one of the main power 

 transmission lines from the Glen Canyon Dam will pass almost 

 directly over Shonto Trading Post. 



Far-reacliing economic and social changes are once again taking 

 place in the Navaho world. Railroad way labor has almost dis- 

 appeared from the economic picture, and has been replaced by local 

 wage work on construction projects financed in many cases by the 

 Navaho tribe itself. In the administration of this new program and 

 countless others, the Tribal Government has shown a capacity and 

 foresight that have compelled Navahos and Whites alike to regard 

 it with far more respect than they did 5 years ago. Perhaps symbolic 

 of the new role of tribal government is Shonto's new stone chapter 

 house, currently the most impressive building in the conununity. 



In many of its details, and particularly in the field of economics, the 

 present study is already out of date. It may be said to describe a 

 pattern of economic integration which remained relatively stable 

 throughout the western Navaho country in the decade and a half im- 

 mediately following World War II. In the future this economic 

 period, like the weaving and livestock eras before it, may be of historic 

 interest as one of the successive steps in the economic assimilation of 

 the Navaho. 



The importance of the trader, at Shonto and throughout the Navaho 

 Reservation, has midoubtedly diminished since 1957. Nevertheless, 



