PAKT 2. THE TKADING POST 



BACKGROUND 

 HISTORY 



By all accounts extensive trading with neighboring peoples is a 

 long-established feature of Navaho life. Considerable prehistoric 

 trade is believed to have taken place between Navahos and most of 

 the Eio Grande Pueblos, and in the early historic period occasional 

 conunercial relations were also noted with Southern Ute, Hopi, upland 

 Yumans, and various Apache groups (Hill, 1948, p. 374). Kegular 

 Navaho trade with Spanish invaders in the Southwest is recorded 

 at the end of the 18th century (Thomas, 1932, pp. 113-114). At a 

 later date the Spanish government of New Mexico forbade Navaho 

 cultivation of tobacco in the hope that the Indians would be forced 

 to buy it from Spanish traders (Van Valkenburgh and McPhee, 1938, 

 p.Y). 



Navaho trade with Anglo-Americans began, according to one 

 source (Sanders et al., 1953, p. 232), in the early 1800's. First con- 

 tacts were sporadic and perhaps often accidental. Formal trading 

 relations were first established with the newly colonized Mormon set- 

 tlements north and west of the Colorado River in the middle of the 

 19th century (cf. Van Valkenburgh and McPhee, 1938, p. 43; Hill, 

 1948, p. 375; Sanders et al., 1953, p. 232). The development of this 

 relationship was largely coincident with the rapid westward expan- 

 sion of the Navahos occasioned by the Carson campaigns of 1862-63 

 (see "Navaho Settlement," pp. 37-39) . 



Prior to the Bosque Redondo exile Navaho trading with all alien 

 groups, Indian and Wliite, was normally conducted by specially 

 organized trading expeditions (see Hill, 1948, pp. 382-384). These 

 were nearly always planned long in advance, and elaborate prepara- 

 tions were made for them. The trading party might be absent for 

 periods up to several weeks. Often trading and preparations for 

 trading were accompanied by a great deal of special ritual (see Hill, 

 1948). 



In the early historic trade complex it was nearly always the Nava- 

 hos who took the initiative. There is no satisfactory evidence of 

 a reciprocal pattern, wherein members of other tribes visited the 

 Navahos for trading purposes. Apparently not until the middle of 

 the 19th century, when traveling Mormon traders began entering 



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