Adams] SHONTO : ROLE OF NAVAHO TRADER 83 



All but about half a dozen of Shonto's married women weave. 

 Shonto weaving in general is noted more for quantity than for quality ; 

 over 90 percent of woven products are saddle blankets of simple 

 banded design and coarse weave. Most of the rugs are only slightly 

 larger than saddle blankets, and are not much different in design. 

 The weaving of large rugs of good quality is confined to five closely 

 related women in a single lineage, and to one other woman. The 

 community has taken no interest either in the recently fashionable 

 vegetable dyes or in the bright aniline hues characteristic of earlier 

 Navaho weaving ; natural blacks, browns, grays and white, plus aniline 

 red, are virtually the sole colors found in Shonto weavmg. Rug-and- 

 saddle-blanket production averages around 100, or one per household, 

 each month. 



Craft production by women does not stop with weaving. Shonto 

 is believed by dealers to stand apart from all other Navaho com- 

 munities in the quantity of its minor craft production, including 

 pottery, basketry, pitched water baskets ("pitch bottles"), and woven 

 cotton sashes similar to those made by the Hopi and the Zuni. (For 

 artistic and technological details see Amsden, 1934 ; Reichard, 1936 ; 

 Hill, 1937 ; Stewart, 1938 ; Tschopik, 1941, 1942.) Also seen from time 

 to time are such near-extinct woven items as twilled and two-faced 

 saddle blankets (cf. Amsden, 1934, pp. 62-57) and old-fashioned 

 woven women's dresses. 



Craft activity other than the weaving of plain saddle blankets is 

 uneven and unpredictable in occurrence, suggesting that it is often 

 a matter of fad. The summer of 1955 brought an unexpected proli- 

 feration of double-faced saddle blankets as well as cotton sashes ; none 

 of these items had appeared in the trading post for over 2 years 

 previously. The store bought no more than three pitch bottles in 

 the whole of 1954 and 1955 ; in the first 3 months of 1956 nearly 50 

 of these items came across the counter. No pottery was made for sale 

 between 1952 and April of 1956, when three women brought in a total 

 of 21 vessels within a single week. Basketry, essential to nearly all 

 ceremonial occasions, is made somewhat more consistently. About 

 half a dozen Shonto women make perhaps two baskets a year each. 



By contrast to women's crafts, the manufactures which were form- 

 erly carried on by males are all but extinct. No silversmithing has 

 been practiced for at least 10 years, although several men claim to 

 have done silverwork earlier. Most older men can make moccasins 

 and other leather items, but do so only very occasionally, for their 

 own and their families' use. Knitting is confined to a few very old 

 men. 



As might be expected, the implements employed in craftwork are 

 largely of native manufacture, perpetuating traditional forms. These, 

 along with ceremonial paraphernalia, are the only significant native 



