174 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuU. 188 



tion has been bought for many years by a single dealer in Las Vegas, 

 N. Mex. The dealer's representative visits Shonto Trading Post about 

 every 3 months; he sorts and weighs the accumulation of sheep and 

 goat skins and writes out a check for the amount due. They are 

 shipped by truck and rail to the buyer's warehouse.^^ 



A good pinon crop is said to occur on an average of every 6 or 7 

 years in the Shonto area. In recent years piiion nuts have con- 

 sistently found a ready market, so much so that in 1964 Shonto Trad- 

 ing Post was able to buy 107,000 pounds of them at 45 cents a pound, 

 and sell them at a considerable profit. Because of the unpredictable 

 supply, however, they do not figure in Shonto's credit structure. In 

 "off" years the harvest is generally limited to a few hundred pounds. 

 Shonto's flour supplier in Monticello, Utah, sometimes accepts these 

 small quantities of piiion nuts in payment of account. 



The two-way trade in goods and commodities once offered all gen- 

 eral storekeepers a lucrative double opportunity for profit (cf. Carson 

 1954, p. 23). It was, in fact, the lure of quick commodity profits 

 rather than retail profits which brought many early traders into the 

 field, and a number were thought to have made fortunes in the rug 

 trade (Underhill, 1956, p. 183). In recent years, nevertheless, mar- 

 kets for Navaho commodities have become so uncertain that the risks 

 involved in handling them usually outweigh potential profits. In 

 these circumstances modem traders tend increasingly to be concerned 

 with minimizing risk rather than maximizing profit. Commodities 

 are apt to be treated strictly as cash substitutes, to be converted as 

 quickly and cheaply as possible. This change of policy is particularly 

 attested by the fact that with a few exceptions traders no longer pay 

 cash for rugs or livestock products. 



A large part of the risk is usually eliminated from wool and lamb 

 transactions by future contracting. A contract to sell a stipulated 

 quota at a stipulated price is concluded before buying begins. The 

 trader can then set his buying price according to the contracted 

 selling price, allowing sufficient differential to cover the very consid- 

 erable costs of handling and transportation. To the extent that this 

 practice eliminates the trader's risk it also eliminates any opportunity 

 for extra profit, since it will normally be necessary to pay the highest 

 feasible price in order to be sure of filling the contracted quota. The 

 most extreme competition to be found among Navaho traders is often 

 for lambs and wool when future contracts have been made, with the 



" The hide buyer has stated that In the course of a year more hides are bought from 

 Shonto Trading Post than from any other two stores on the Navaho Reservation — a 

 significant indication of the high volume of home consumption of mutton which Is main- 

 tained in this area. (See "Cooking and Housekeeping," pp. 81^82.) 



