Adams] SHONTO I ROLE OF NAVAHO TRADER 119 



mercial value. The proportion of goat hides handled at Shonto 

 Trading Post is about one in six. Goats are kept principally for milk 

 and for mohair, which always brings a higher price per pound 

 (although a much lighter clip) than wool. 



Cattle are owned in 17 of Shonto's 38 residence groups (table 19), 

 the average holding being 7.1 head and the largest 16 head. In recent 

 years cattle have contributed almost nothing to the community's liveli- 

 hood except through the occasional slaughter of a calf for home con- 

 sumption. As a result of a complete lack of market, Shonto Trading 

 Post has not bought cattle since 1953. 



Because all range land is unfenced, cattle are usually run into the 

 larger canyons or the rough "breaks" adjacent to them, to prevent 

 excessive straying. Animals are rounded up once a year for branding 

 at Shonto community center. They are seldom looked after at any 

 other time of year, and for practical jDurposes are completely wild. 

 The community does not have a bull pasture, and segregation is largely 

 a hit-or-miss affair of herding bulls into a separate area from the rest 

 of the stock. 



Horses are the basic and universal means of transportation, and are 

 also kept to a large extent for prestige, constituting one of Shonto's 

 most conspicuous wealth items (cf. Reichard, 1928, p. 89; Hobson, 

 1954, p. 8). Every Shonto residence group has horses, the average 

 holding being 7.4 head (table 19) and the largest 17 head. Mules 

 and burros are rare. Horses furnish the basis for considerable native 

 commerce among Shonto families. 



Shonto's present-day livestock practice has undergone relatively 

 little change since the turn of the century, and continues to be criti- 

 cized by Wliites as uneconomical and inefficient (cf. Franciscan 

 Fathers, 1910, p. 257; Kluckhohn and Leighton, 1946, p. 31; Land- 

 graf, 1954, pp. 61-63). Nearly all of the alleged defects are directly 

 attributable to the entirely sedentary character of Navaho sheep- 

 raising, which itself is a function of its secondary position to farming 

 in the economic scheme. 



Efforts by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and latterly by the District 

 Grazing Committee to control grazing and to improve stock and 

 yield have had very little effect at Shonto. As is indicated in table 19, 

 the community's current stocking is nearly 25 percent in excess of 

 permitted capacity, mostly due to excessive numbers of horses and 

 goats. As has been stated previously ("Social and Political Author- 

 ity," pp. 65-68), the District Grazing Community has inherited most 

 of the role, including the inherent unpopularity, of the Indian Bu- 

 reau's livestock program, and it meets with consistent lack of coopera- 

 tion from other Navahos. The fact that two of the committee 

 members are themselves known to have holdings in excess of their per- 



