190 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuU. 188 



and. is only delivered to the addressee on demand. Checks when rec- 

 ognizable are segregated from the regular mail and kept in the pawn 

 vault, alongside the accounts receivable. 



Since having such primary access to checks is considered essential 

 as a basis for credit against them, post office and/or mail distribution 

 facilities are said to be worth $10,000 a year or more to any trading 

 post. Isolated trading posts such as Shonto enjoy such privileges 

 automatically. In larger settlements such as Kayenta and Tuba City, 

 where more than one store is located, it is invariably the trading post 

 which has the post office that gets all the relief accounts. 



Even more important than mail delivery is the Railroad Retirement 

 Claims Agency (see "Railroad Work," pp. 129-133). Unemployment 

 checks are always addressed to Navaho claimants in care of the store at 

 which they sign up for benefits ; hence delivered directly into the hands 

 of the trader. Throughout the western part of the Navaho Reserva- 

 tion the claims agency is said to be a necessity for any store. Purely as 

 a basis for credit against unemployment checks, it was worth about 

 $15,000 to Shonto Trading Post in 1955 (see table 21, p. 137) . Shonto's 

 owner in 1956 refused an offer to purchase a store at Pihon, giving as 

 his reason the fact that the store did not include the railroad claims 

 agency. 



Book credit against local checks breaks down into three basic classes : 

 credit against unemployment checks, against relief checks, and against 

 paychecks. The procedures in each case are essentially the same. 

 Anyone receiving regular income by check may draw against it up to 

 the full amomit of the check (which is always recorded prominently 

 on the cover of the account book) . All such accomits are payable on 

 receipt of the check; that is, monthly in the case of welfare checks, 

 every 15 days in the case of paychecks, and every 2 weeks in the case 

 of railroad unemployment checks. Since the amount of all such in- 

 come is closely predictable, the careful trader can see to it that almost 

 the exact amount of the check is owed on account by the time it ar- 

 rives. If this is not accomplished it is an easy matter to "delay the 

 arrival" of the check, by taking it out of the mail and hiding it for 

 a week or two, until the account is more nearly "filled up," as traders 

 say. This practice has been common among traders in all parts of the 

 reservation. Because of the inf requency (twice a week in the Shonto 

 area) and uncertainty of mail deliveries it arouses surprisingly little 

 suspicion. By one device and another Shonto Trading Post usually 

 manages to let no more than 10 percent of unemployment compensa- 

 tion, and scarcely 1 percent of welfare benefits, reach their destined 

 recipients in cash (see table 16, p. 109) . 



In addition to livestock and check accounts, a few Shonto families 

 have always been allowed unsecured credit against railroad wages. 

 These are the least secured of all Shonto's accounts, since the money 



