Adams] SHONTO : ROLE OF NAVAHO TRADER 165 



have traveled a long distance to trade.^^ During wool and lamb 

 seasons the store frequently remains open until far into the night, and 

 on Sundays as well. 



Shonto's entire operation is geared to its Navaho clientele, which 

 accounts for over 99 percent of the total annual volume of business. 

 White trade, either from transients or from neighbors at the school 

 and national monument, is considered incidental, and no real attempt 

 is made to attract it. There is, in fact, a common tendency for traders 

 to say that tourist trade is "a nuisance" (see "Clientele," pp. 184-186). 



About 65 percent of Shonto's annual trade comes from the 100 

 families which are considered in the present study as comprising the 

 Shonto community. The remaining 35 percent of trade comes from 

 occasional, and in some cases regular, visits by Navahos from other 

 communities. Because Shonto often pays higher prices for lambs 

 and wool than do its neighbors (see "Commodity Exchange," pp. 172- 

 175), it receives a disproportionately high percentage of the livestock 

 trade from Districts 1 and 2. Numerous families from Cow Springs, 

 Kaibito, Navajo Mountain, and especially Black Mesa carry regular 

 livestock accounts at Shonto. 



The gross sales volume of all trading posts is subject to considerable 

 annual variation, owing largely to fluctuating commodity prices and 

 an uneven market for Navaho labor. Shonto's gross varies between 

 normal limits of about $120,000 and $150,000 a year. Net profit 

 (owner's salary not deducted) averages between 10 and 15 percent of 

 gross, or between extreme limits of about $12,000 and $22,000 an- 

 nually. In 1955 the store's present owners refused an offer of $65,000 

 for Shonto Trading Post. 



WHITE SOCIETY AT SHONTO 



Shonto Trading Post is one of three White institutions permanently 

 established in the community, the others being the neighboring school 

 and the national monument headquarters 10 miles away. The mis- 

 sionary establishment across the canyon from the store and school 

 temporarily added a fourth institution in 1955. In that year the 

 adult White population of Shonto community numbered eight per- 

 sons ; one married couple each at the store, mission and national mon- 

 ument, and two women teachers at the school. 



A distinct social barrier separates White society from Navaho so- 

 ciety at Shonto. Relations between the two groups, though seemingly 

 personal in many respects (see pp. 287-290), are confined to institu- 

 tional contexts in which a role distinction is maintained at all times. 

 Notably absent is any pattern of personal hospitality as between 



" These privileges are never extended to White tourists unless they Indicate a strong 

 interest in buying rugs. 



635893—63 12 



