156 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BaU. 188 



the only one tliat has ventured into outright ownership of its ovm 

 retail outlets. 



Other important trading interests in the northwestern Navaho 

 country have been those of the Kerley family at Tuba City, Kayenta, 

 Navajo Mountain, and Moenave; and Heflin & Carson at Oljeto, 

 Kayenta, Inscription House, and Shonto. 



Commercial enterprise came to the northwestern Navaho country 

 toward the close of the great rug-trading period, and for this reason 

 weaving has never at any time been as important here as in other 

 parts of the reservation. Conspicuously absent are the very large 

 rugs which were once so heavily subsidized, and continue to be made in 

 some quantity, farther east. Shonto Trading Post and all of its 

 neighbors have long since ceased to allow any credit against rugs. 



SHONTO TItADINQ POST 



Many details of the early history of Shonto Trading Post are 

 obscure today. The enterprise was founded, on the site which it still 

 occupies, in 1915, by John Wetherill and Joe Lee (Van Valken- 

 burgh, 1941, p. 145. Lee later traded at McElmo Creek and appears 

 occasionally in the narrative of "Old Mexican" — Dyk, 1947). Sup- 

 plies were brought in by wagon from Kayenta and were sold out of 

 a tent. Water was obtained from the wash and from Shonto Spring, 

 a couple of miles upstream from the store. The enterprise was origi- 

 nally called Shonto Springs Store, a name which still appears on 

 some maps.^ 



Shonto Springs Store continued as a tent operation and an outpost 

 of Kayenta until shortly after World War I, when it was sold to 

 Messrs. Sid Richardson and Tobe Turpen. The new owners built 

 the first permanent building on the site, consisting of the present store, 

 warehouse, and most of the family living quarters (A, C, and D on 

 fig. 1). They also developed a well and pumphouse (F) at the store 

 site, and put up an overnight hogan (P) for transient Navahos.^ 



Early in the 1920's Richardson & Turpen in turn sold out to Babbitt 

 Bros., who were then just beginning to enter the trading field on a 

 large scale. The company operated Shonto for several years, making 

 no significant additions to the plant or methods of operation. Wool 

 and, to a lesser extent, rugs, with heavy emphasis on credit, continued 

 to be the basis of trade throughout their tenure. In 1930, Babbitt's 

 sold the store to Mr. and Mrs. Harry Rorick for $10,000 in cash. 



* Many years later the name was changed briefly to Betatakin Trading Post, also seen 

 on some maps today, and finally to Shonto Trading Post. Thei name Shonto, which trans- 

 lates roughly as "spring in the sunshine," is rather common on the reservation. At least 

 two other trading posts go by the same designation in Navaho, though both of these go 

 by the English name of Sunshine Trading Post. 



" Popular accounts of trading post life and times during this period may be found in 

 Coolldge, 1925 ; Faunce, 1934 ; GiUmor and Wetherill, 19.34 ; and Schmedding, 1951. All 

 of these are written by or about traders and give a good general Impression of the physical 

 conditions under which they worked. 



