Adams] SHONTO : ROLE OF NAVAHO TRADER 191 



is actually earned and paid off the reservation, and must be brought or 

 mailed back. Trading posts in general have demanded pawn as 

 security against any such accounts, and Shonto for the most part 

 follows the same policy. A few individuals, however, have long- 

 standing records of reliability, and the families of these are permitted 

 to draw against their earnings during their absence. Credit is likely 

 to be shut off promptly if a money order is not received during the 

 first 6 or 8 weeks after the individual's employment, and the accomit 

 must be settled in full immediately upon Ms return. 



Since book credit accounts form the largest single share of Shonto's 

 trade, the trader must indeed be first and foremost a credit manager 

 (see "Sales Promotion," pp. 180-182). Shonto's Navahos live on 

 credit to such an extent that the trader is in effect budget director and 

 financial manager for the whole coimnunity (cf. Kluckhohn and 

 Leighton, 1946, p. 39 ; Sanders et al., 1953, p. 234) . Few Navahos keep 

 any sort of accomits of their own. They rely implicitly on the trader 

 to budget them in accordance with their earning capacity, so that their 

 credit resources are never exhausted for any significant length of time 

 (see Kluckhohn and Leighton, 1946, p. 39). If indebtedness accumu- 

 lates to such an extent that credit must be shut off, it is the trader who 

 is blamed for this bad management. The consensus seems to be that if 

 the trader is going to allow credit at all, it is up to him to manage it 

 properly. 



The trader has the same fundamental problems as all other credit 

 managers: first to determine or estimate earnings so as to set credit 

 limits at the highest possible safe figure, and second to collect his 

 accounts. The trader's operation, however, is additionally compli- 

 cated by his policy of deliberate credit saturation — making sure that 

 capacities are as nearly as possible exhausted without being actually 

 surpassed. Each of these considerations poses a special challenge, 

 and it is largely on the basis of his ability to meet them that the success 

 and capability of the modern trader is measured. Hence the common 

 assertion that good traders are bom, not made. 



The purely logistic complexities of trading-post operation, such as 

 frequently impress casual visitors, are considered trivial by compari- 

 son to successful credit management. As Shonto's owner has been 

 heard to observe, "Anybody can learn to talk 'Navvy' and wait on 

 counter and fix the lights and drive a truck in a few months. But 

 you can't learn to hold them down and say 'no' to them, and that's 

 what a trader's really got to do." 



Accurate credit limits depend on careful records and on knowing 

 the clientele thoroughly. In the long run the type of relationship 

 which exists between trader and community (see pp. 21^231) fur- 

 nishes far better credit information than could any agency. The trad- 

 er's secondary role as channel of contact between the outside world and 



