Adams] SHONTO I ROLE OF NAVAHO TRADER 89 



MIDDLE AGE 



Late maturity brings the highest prestige and authority in Navaho 

 life (see Leighton and Kluckhohn, 1948, p. 89) . Men retire from sea- 

 sonal wage work between 45 and 50, and thereafter occupy themselves 

 at home, often with directing the affairs of the residence group, ar- 

 ranging marriages for their children, and so on. Maximum age limit 

 for railroad work is 50 years. Until 1955 the age limit was 55, and 

 two individuals, by dint of falsified records, managed to work season- 

 ally until they were past 60. 



Men and women become eligible for Old Age Assistance from the 

 State Department of Public Welfare at age 65. In future years a 

 large number of Shonto's railroad workers and their families will 

 undoubtedly qualify also for Old Age and Survivors' insurance bene- 

 fits from the Federal Social Security Administration, although no one 

 is currently receiving such benefits. At any rate nearly all of the 

 middle-aged people in the conununity now look forward confidently 

 to regular welfare checks to support them in their old age. Economic 

 eligibility will be established in due time by an official transfer of 

 livestock, permits, and other deductible assets into the names of their 

 children. Two or three farsighted elders have managed to effect 

 such transfer in advance of the 2-year period prescribed by law, and 

 so have become eligible for benefits immediately upon reaching 65. 

 Most elders, however, are resigned to waiting out the prescribed 

 period — during which they are supposed to be supported by income 

 accruing from the property transfer — before becoming eligible. 



Of Shonto's 20 residents who are over 65 years of age, all but 6 

 are receiving either Old Age Assistance or General Assistance. Four 

 of the six who do not receive benefits have applied for them; three 

 are now waitmg out property-transfer penalties and will become eli- 

 gible in 1 or 2 years. 



The advent of welfare assistance has provided valuable social and 

 economic security to Shonto's old-timers. Elderly persons, as well 

 as handicapped persons, with their steady monthly income, are today 

 likely to be an economic asset rather than a handicap to the household 

 and residence group. While the aged continue to be feared as witches, 

 most of them can count on being reasonably well looked after in 

 their unproductive final years (contrast Leighton and Kluckholm, 

 1948, pp. 89-90) and perhaps to being adopted into the household 

 of a married son when their own households are grown and gona 



