226 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 188 



ment, such as police records, previous unsuccessful job experiences, 

 and in some cases even ages. (One Shonto man worked on the rail- 

 road until he was 63, and several others have worked into their late 

 50's, although the official age limit is 50.) 



In spite of the normally close relationship and cooperation be- 

 tween store and community school (see "Intracultural Relations at 

 the Contact Level," pp. 253-250), Shonto's trader has been known to 

 conceal from the school teachers his knowledge that certain families 

 had not sent all their children to school. Also, and time after time, the 

 trader keeps to himself his awareness that recipients of public welfare 

 have assets (e.g., jewelry and, in a few cases, livestock) which are not 

 reported to the State Department of Public Welfare. One Shonto 

 household has drawn Aid to Dependent Children (see "Welfare," 

 p. 136) to the extent of nearly $150 a month for several years on the 

 strength of a case report that the husband is over 65 and has no assets, 

 although he is known in the community to be considerably younger, 

 and has over 100 head of sheep and several cattle. The activities of 

 Shonto's trader in these respects can be legitimately summed up by 

 saying that in the interplay of White and Navaho societies he serves 

 him own interest best by keeping his own counsel, and does not feel 

 compelled to volunteer information unless requested to do so. It is a 

 vitally significant feature of the role of the trader that he does not hold 

 himself responsible to any other White agency in dealing with the 

 Navaho (see "Intracultural Relations at the Contact Level," pp. 253- 

 256). 



Although Shonto people occasionally ask the trader to call the po- 

 lice in their behalf, much more commonly they expect him to help 

 protect them from the law (cf. Kluckhohn and Leighton, 1946, p. Y9). 

 Here again they are able to take advantage of the fact that he does not 

 feel any obligation to uphold or to enforce the law, since that is the 

 charter function of others. Instead he may warn inebriates or wanted 

 persons in advance if he knows that the police are on their way to 

 Shonto, and may help to hustle them off the scene. It is expected that 

 he will not volunteer information about their whereabouts. 



An extreme example of this sort of conspiracy occurred in 1955, 

 when a Shonto man was formally charged with assault and battery 

 (for beating a "witch"— see "Religion and Ritual," pp. 70-74). The 

 trader found an off-reservation job for the offender and shipped him 

 out of the community before the Tuba City police were able to take any 

 action; he subsequently replied to police inquiries with the assertion 

 that the individual in question had left the reservation, but that he 

 himself did not know where he had gone. Still later he counseled the 

 fugitive's daughter on several occasions to write to her father and 

 advise him against coming home until the "heat was off," and in this 

 manner actually succeeded in keeping him at liberty for several 

 months. 



