Adams] SHONTO : ROLE OF NAVAHO TRADER 145 



the community and the 17 which receive regular welfare benefits. 

 Income for these individuals is subject to little fluctuation during the 

 year, and alone among all members of the community they are entitled 

 to uniform credit at all seasons. 



Seasonality and cyclic repetition are the essence of Shonto's entire 

 economic life, and continue to dominate the community's economic 

 thmking and values. "Wage income is involved no less than native 

 subsistence enterprise. Here lies the fundamental limitation upon 

 Shonto's productive potential and at the same time the source of its 

 social and cultural strength. The seemingly unlimited productive 

 opportunities of modern America have been adapted, almost without 

 exception, to an imyielding economic scheme of things that is as old 

 as mankind (see Herskovits, 1952, pp. 67-87) . 



SUMMARY 



Shonto is not a typical Navaho community in terms of its economy 

 any more than in the other phases of its life (see "Summary," pp. 

 93-94) . Within the Navaho Keservation regional diversification has, 

 in fact, reached its greatest proportions in the field of economics 

 (see Kluckholin and Leighton, 1946, pp. 32-33; Roessel, 1951, pp. 

 70-71). Modern communities in different parts of the reservation 

 depend upon various combinations of government and tribal employ- 

 ment, railroad work, defense work, seasonal off-reservation agricul- 

 ture, construction, and home industry. 



Table 26 lists the individual income of the entire Navaho tribe from 

 all sources in 1955. (The figures have been compiled by the Navaho 

 Agency at Window Rock for inclusion in a forthcoming "Navajo 

 Yearbook of Planning in Action — Calendar Year 1955," and are sup- 

 plied by courtesy of Robert W. Young. They do not include undis- 

 tributed income accruing to the Navaho Tribe, Inc., and deposited 

 in the tribal treasury. It will be noted that the categories of income 

 included in table 26 do not entirely correspond to those in tables of 

 Shonto income included herein.) 



Table 27 compares percentages of total income earned from various 

 sources by Shonto Navahos and by the Navaho tribe as a whole. The 

 table may serve to illustrate the features more or less distinctive of 

 Shonto's economy and that of surrounding communities. Most im- 

 mediately apparent is the fact that Shonto's heavy reliance upon 

 railroad work is not typical of the reservation in general. While both 

 community and tribe derive roughly half their total income from off- 

 reservation wage work, the ratio of railroad to nonrailroad wages for 

 the whole tribe is about 1:1, whereas at Shonto it is more like 20 : 1. 



