184 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuU. 188 



trader's profit is especially high, since fluctuating costs, commodity 

 prices, and labor demand all play a significant part in determining 

 both volume and profit. Since 1950 the annual gross of Shonto Trad- 

 ing Post has fluctuated between limits of approximately $100,000 and 

 $150,000, while the net has varied from a profit of $20,000 to a loss 

 of nearly $10,000. The Navaho trade in general continues to justify 

 its long-standing reputation as a "boom-and-bust" proposition. 



RETAIL TRADE 



The character of any retail business is determined to a large extent 

 by its clientele. It is in this regard that Navalio trading posts are 

 most clearly set off from other mercantile enterprises in modem 

 America. Relations between the trader and his customer are those 

 between persons of distinct culture and members of entirely separate 

 societies. The trading post remains, therefore, a cross-cultural and 

 also what might be called a cross-societal institution. 



In the early days of trading, when the Navaho economy was still 

 largely self-sufficient, the cross-cultural nature of trading probably 

 worked as much to the advantage of the Navaho as to that of the 

 trader. The latter at that time had no effective means of controlling 

 his consumer market either individually or collectively, and sometimes 

 took a beating in consequence (see, e.g., Coolidge and Coolidge, 1930, 

 p. 67; Dyk, 1938, passim; Underhill, 1956, p. 183). Increasing eco- 

 nomic dependence on American society, however, was and is tanta- 

 mount to increasing economic dependence on the trader specifically. 

 As a result, today's traders exercise a control over their clientele 

 which is measured by the latter's reliance not merely on them, but 

 on the whole social and economic structure wliich they represent. It 

 is doubtful if an equal commercial advantage was ever enjoyed by 

 any other merchant in American history. This advantage is strongly 

 reflected in the retail methods and customer relations of the modern 

 trading post. 



CLIENTELE 



The term Trading Post as employed throughout the present work 

 refers to retail general stores serving a largely or exclusively Navaho 

 clientele, and operating accordingly. A distinction must be main- 

 tained (and is insisted on by traders themselves) between these enter- 

 prises and off-reservation retail curio stores dealing in Indian and 

 pseudo-Indian crafts. The latter commonly designate themselves 

 "trading posts" because of the fancied picturesque connotations of 

 the term ; but they are, of course, straight cash operations serving a 

 strictly White clientele. 



