136 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 188 



Shonto residents are entitled to Public Assistance (Aid to Depend- 

 ent Children, Aid to the Blind, and Old Age Assistance) from the 

 Arizona State Department of Public Welfare, and to General Assist- 

 ance (noncategorical aid) from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Such 

 income has a definite role in the community's economy as the standard 

 and rightful contribution (in Navaho terms) of elderly and disabled 

 households (see "The Life C5ycle," pp. 84-90) , In effect, it gives every 

 adult in the community at least a potential contributing role in the 

 economy regardless of physical or economic condition. Every Shonto 

 household is thus at least in part economically independent. 



Eligibility for public assistance is established on the basis of fixed 

 criteria of age, marital status, medical condition, and financial condi- 

 tion which are uniform for all Arizona residents. Welfare payments 

 are always made to households, the amount depending on the size of 

 the household and the extent of other economic resources. Most 

 Shonto households receive maximum or near maximum support. 



Aid to Dependent Children (ADC) is paid to households having 

 dependent children in which the husband is deceased, divorced, or in- 

 capacitated. As stated earlier ("Social Structure," pp. 54:-65) all but 

 one of Shonto's broken households are support by ADC. The size 

 of many ADC grants nearly doubles during the summer months when 

 children return from school. 



Aid to the Blind (AB) is normally paid to needy adults under the 

 age of 65. Blind persons over 65 are transferred to the category of 

 Old Age Assistance. Shonto has two blind women, one of whom 

 draws AB and one OAA. 



Old Age Assistance (OAA) is paid to needy persons over the age 

 of 65. Of Shonto's 16 households including persons over 65, 7 receive 

 OAA, 3 others receive ADC or GA, and 6 currently receive no welfare 

 assistance, although 4 of these have applied for it. 



General Assistance (GA) has no categorical requirements, but is 

 conceived as emergency assistance to needy persons who are not quali- 

 fied for public assistance. In practice, it is only paid to persons who 

 have applied for public assistance and have been refused. 



Shonto's 1955 welfare income amounted to $13,598, equal to 8.2 per- 

 cent of all community income. The caseload by categories is shown 

 in table 20. 



Welfare income is received in the form of monthly checks. Because 

 it is paid to households with necessarily low mobility and because it 

 is required to be spent exclusively for subsistence needs, welfare is 

 considered the most secure of all credit bases at Shonto Trading Post. 

 As in the case of unemployment compensation, credit limits are equal 

 to the amount of the monthly check, and accounts are payable on 

 receipt of the check. All of Shonto's families on relief live almost 



