Adams] SHONTO I ROLE OF NAVAHO TRADER 161 



all fixed assets. The claim if allowed would have permitted out- 

 right confiscation. The long dispute which followed resulted chiefly 

 from the fact that tribal claim would, in the traders' view, destroy 

 the investment value of their properties, many of which had recently 

 been bought for prices in excess of $50,000. Negotiations between the 

 Navaho Tribe and the United Indian Traders' Association were car- 

 ried on for several years, during which time there was a high turn- 

 over in store ownership throughout the reservation. Of the 10 major 

 trading posts nearest to Shonto, 7 changed hands between 1949 and 

 1954. 



A settlement between traders and tribe was ultimately reached in 

 1954. The traders' proprietary claim upon buildings and fixed assets 

 was surrendered in exchange for a 25 -year transferable and renewable 

 lease, and the traders' sole proprietary interest in the business was 

 recognized. An annual lease rental of li^ percent of gross volume 

 was agreed upon. Inevitably this addition to operating costs has been 

 passed along to the Navaho consumer through higher markups. 



THE TRADING POST TODAY 



Modern Shonto Trading Post occupies a 2l^-acre leasehold on its 

 original site on the floor of Shonto Canyon (figs. 1, 2). The store is 

 licensed to operate (under $50,000 bond) annually by the Bureau of 

 Indian Affairs, and is subject to the terms of its 25-year lease from 

 the Navaho tribe. Through its owner it has membership in the 

 United Indian Traders' Association. 



PLANT 



Business is still conducted in the original store building (fig. 1, A) 

 erected shortly after World War I. In its physical layout Shonto 

 remains a typical trading post of an earlier day : a long, low, stone 

 building with a single door and a few small, heavily barred windows, 

 and capped by a slightly pitched roof. Like many neighboring trad- 

 ing posts it gives the initial impression of a large shed. The building 

 is constructed entirely of local red sandstone laid up with adobe 

 mortar and is quite obviously the work of untrained local builders. 

 Woodwork inside and out is unfinished, and some of it is rough-hewn. 



Interior dimensions of the store itself (see fig. 3) are about 25 by 

 45 feet. Inside walls are plastered and painted. The dim light ad- 

 mitted by five small windows is augmented by half a dozen 150-watt 

 electric bulbs hanging from the ceiling.^" An interior ceiling of 

 fiberboard was added to Shonto Trading Post in 1954. It has an aver- 



1" Because of the necessity of keeping a constant minimum load upon the 24-hour gen- 

 erator, most light bulbs at the store, as well as at the school, are kept burning at all 

 times, 80 that the visitor entering Shonto Canyon even In the early hours of the morning 

 Is likely to get the impression that he is approaching a sizable settlement. 



