Adams] SHONTO I ROLE OF NAVAHO TRADER 201 



he is supposed to be able to spot a cotton warp and other defects at 

 a glance. 



Minor crafts — sashes, baskets, pitch bottles, and pots — are handled 

 on the same basis as rugs and traded for merchandise only. The same 

 is ordinarily true of pinon nuts, although during the bumper winter 

 of 1954 there was so much competition among traders for the crop 

 that a certain amount of credit was allowed against it in advance. 



PATTERNS OF TRADE 



The distinctive shopping habits characteristic of Shonto's clientele 

 are to some extent the result of environmental factors: relative in- 

 accessibility of the store for many families, and its old-fashioned lay- 

 out and limited inventory. In much greater measure, however, they 

 are purely cultural in origin. They are, in fact, peculiarly Navaho 

 buying habits such as may be observed only in a Navaho trading post. 



FREQUENCY OF SHOPPING 



Some member of every Shonto household gets to the store on an 

 average of at least once a month. This is apparently the minimum 

 frequency of contact needed to sustain the modem Navaho household. 

 While it is predictable that a few households will always fail to appear 

 during any 30-day period, it is equally predictable that these house- 

 holds will turn up during the next period of equal length. 



Above the minimum figure maintained by all households, fre- 

 quency of trading is chiefly a function of distance from the store, 

 and of transportation resources. Variation in frequency is therefore 

 enormous, as might be expected in view of the size of the community. 

 Shonto's nearest Navaho neighbors live within 200 yards of the store, 

 while families in the extreme north end of the community are more 

 than 15 miles away (see map 1). Consequently members of the 

 former are in the store nearly every day, whereas the latter are seldom 

 on hand more than once a week. For families living on the margins 

 of the community trading at Shonto is a full day's activity, since it 

 involves a round trip of 20 to 30 miles by horseback or wagon. Truck 

 owners, of course, can and do visit the store with considerably greater 

 frequency. 



Table 35 presents a frequency distribution of Shonto households 

 according to the number of days on which one or more adult members 

 visited Shonto Trading Post during the 4 weeks from April 1 to 

 April 28, 1956." 



" since the store Is open 6 days a week, the total potential number of visits for any- 

 household would normally be 24. However, during the period of record It was necessary 

 to close the store unexpectedly for one entire day in order to repair a breakdown In the 

 power plant. The total potential number of visits was therefore 23, (See also table 36.) 



