Adams] SHONTO I ROLE OF NAVAHO TRADER 155 



into the "backwoods" (cf. Leighton and Kluckholin, 1948, p. 139) of 

 Shonto and neighboring communities. 



Three names are inextricably associated with trading in the north- 

 western Navaho country : those of Wetherill, Richardson, and Babbitt 

 Bros. John and Louisa Wetherill, of the now-celebrated Mancos 

 family (see Gillmor and Wetherill, 1934) have the undivided honor 

 of having pioneered trade in this most remote corner of the reservation. 

 They began operations at Oljeto in 1907 and removed to Kayenta in 

 1909, where their original business still flourishes and has become the 

 center of a lively community. From Kayenta, John Wetherill and 

 his son Ben established a series of outposts which one by one were 

 sold out and became independent enterprises. Among them were 

 Oljeto, Chilchinbeto, Cow Springs, and Shonto. 



While the Wetherills were pioneering trade in the Kayenta region, 

 the Richardson family of Flagstaff moved in farther west during 

 and after World War I. Richardson holdings at one time or another 

 included Cameron, Kaibito, The Gap, Inscription House, Rainbow 

 Lodge, and Shonto (see map 1) . 



The last and most important entry in the field was that of Bab- 

 bitt Bros. Trading Co., of Flagstaff. Beginning as livestock growers 

 around the turn of the century, the Babbitt family became engaged 

 in trading for Navaho wool, then entered the wholesale mercantile 

 field in Flagstaff, and have finally ended by operating a string of 

 trading posts on the reservation as well. The Babbit trading empire 

 today is the largest on the reservation, including sole or majority 

 interest in trading posts at Tuba City, Cedar Ridge, Red Lake, Cow 

 Springs, Kayenta, Pinon, Jeddito, and Indian Wells. 



Entry of the Babbitt company into the Navaho retail field empha- 

 sizes the growing importance of the mercantile wholesaler in 20th- 

 century Navaho trade. This development has been an inevitable 

 outgrowth of tlue credit system at the retail level. Since most traders 

 have little in the way of capital reserves they have themselves become 

 heavily dependent upon wholesale credit. The measure of Navaho 

 economic dependence upon the trader is commonly, in modem times, 

 the measure of the latter's dependence upon his own suppliers. If 

 the trading post is the only institution able to grant long-term, un- 

 secured credit to the Navaho individual, the off-reservation general 

 wholesale house is equally the only institution able to carry the trad- 

 ing post on the same terms. The modern Navaho market economy is 

 thus underwritten ultimately by the wholesale houses. 



In the present century trading throughout the Navaho Reservation 

 has been backed, and hence largely controlled, by three general mer- 

 cantile houses in Farmington, Gallup, and Flagstaff. These enter- 

 prises have always been devoted very largely to serving the Navaho 

 trade, and are closely geared to it. The Babbitt Company is, however, 



