218 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuU. 188 



post. The annual cycle of economic activity (see "The Economic 

 Cycle," pp. 141-145) is such that Navaho men sometimes want or need 

 work at times when there are no regular openings ; in such cases they 

 are likely to rely on the trader to "find something for them" or at least 

 to stake them to a cash loan sufficient to take them off the reservation 

 in search of a job. (cf. also Collier and Collier, 1953, p. 220.) Acting 

 as employment agent, in sum, is one of the important institutional 

 functions of Shonto Trading Post, and is so recognized by both 

 Navahos and employers. 



BENEFIT AGENT 



Shonto Trading Post regularly and sometimes officially acts as an 

 intermediary for Navahos in securing other financial benefits as well 

 as jobs (see Luomala, 1938, p. 5 ; Sanders et al., 1953, p. 234) , In this 

 category are the trader's activities as claims agent in securing rail- 

 road unemployment compensation for his customers (see "Railroad 

 Work," pp. 129-133) . Equally essential, from the point of view of the 

 Navaho community, is the trader's assistance and often initiative in 

 obtaining public welfare benefits for qualified individuals. It was 

 mentioned earlier ("Economic Interdependence," pp. 103-108) that 

 since Public Assistance was first instituted for Navahos in 1948 it has 

 become the recognized and accepted function of elderly persons and 

 households to contribute relief income to the overall welfare of the 

 residence group. Shonto's oldsters, and others qualified for relief, rely 

 very largely on the trader to keep track of their qualifications and to 

 institute application and furnish information in their behalf whenever 

 appropriate. Most correspondence regarding welfare applications 

 or benefits is never seen by the applicant or recipient ; it is conducted 

 entirely between the trader and the State Department of Public 

 Welfare. Letters from the welfare department addressed to Shonto 

 individuals are removed from the mail and opened by the trader as 

 a matter of regular policy, and in many cases (i.e., requests for 

 further information) they are answered by him without even consult- 

 ing the addressee. 



The action of many traders in dealing with the State Department 

 of Public Welfare on behalf of their clients is simplified and also 

 given at least covert sanction by the fact that trading posts are the 

 officially designated points where caseworkers make their quarterly 

 direct contacts with welfare recipients. The Nava-Hopi Unit of 

 the welfare department, like many another Government agency, has 

 long since learned that locating and contacting Navahos at home, 

 given the physiography of the Navaho Reservation and the circum- 

 stances of Navaho residence and society, is a logistic impossibility. 

 Instead the welfare caseworker appoints a date in advance on which 

 he will be at the trading post, and asks the trader to see that all 



