192 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuU. 188 



the community is in itself an automatic source of information. As in- 

 terpreter and mail-reader he finds out in advance the amount of 

 welfare grants, allowing him to set up accounts even before the first 

 check has been received. His official records as claims agent for the 

 Railroad Retirement Board allow him to calculate long in advance the 

 amount of unemployment benefits which any claimant will receive. 

 His White neighbors readily furnish him with information regarding 

 the salaries as well as the financial activities of their Navaho employees. 



Wliere income is entirely by check, as in the case of welfare ac- 

 counts, budgeting and credit limitation are simple matters. Where 

 there is more than one source of income and basis for credit, as is 

 true during some parts of the year for more than half Shonto's house- 

 holds (see table 18, pp. 114-116) , the calculations must be compounded 

 accordingly. 



No real budgeting is involved in the case of check credit. The 

 account is simply "shut off" short the moment the limit is reached, 

 which may be within an hour of the time it was settled with the last 

 check. The customer will be warned as he approaches his limit, but 

 not stopped. It is felt that no particular hardship results from 

 trading an account up to its limit at a single session, since the period 

 between checks is short and trips to the store are infrequent and often 

 inconvenient in any case. 



On livestock accounts, where a term of several months is involved, 

 some attempt is made to hold the creditor down to a more or less fixed 

 proportion of the ultimate limit each month. "Holding down" in such 

 cases amounts in practice only to repeated warnings not to draw too 

 much at one time. If the client is insistent the trader is apt to say 

 "All right — go ahead and trade, but don't blame me when your credit 

 is cut off next month." In a showdown Navaho traders have never 

 forcibly rationed their long-term creditors, so that accounts are never 

 truly shut off until they have reached their ultimate limits. 



Securing payment of account is the trader's greatest single chal- 

 lenge. His success as a collector depends in part upon his own abili- 

 ties and experience. Even more, however, it is measured by the 

 dependence on credit of the community itself ; for the threat of with- 

 holding future credit is the trader's one consistently effective sanction 

 against default. 



Livestock accounts are thought to present no problem. Few Nava- 

 hos could profit by holding back their wool or buck lambs, and in any 

 case they are easy to keep track of. If for any reason a large live- 

 stock account is not settled, the trader may take or send the store's 

 stake-body truck to the debtor's hogan "to inquire what the trouble 

 is." The usual arguments about forfeiture of all future credit are 

 advanced by the trader, and it is hoped that the debtor will take 

 advantage of the extra inducement of free transportation to send in 



