256 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 188 



right competition between town merchants and trading posts. Shon- 

 to's owner (although he maintains a home there himself) often feels 

 compelled to disparage Flagstaff as a corporate institution of White 

 society, dwelling on the existence of such imputed evils as Mexican 

 and Negro bootleggers, "gyp joints," and petty crooks who prey on 

 the innocent Navaho. Insofar as it is regarded as the source of most 

 of the liquor now consumed on the western part of the reservation, 

 there is a tendency for not only traders, but Government officials and 

 even missionaries to discourage Navaho visits to town. "Why go to 

 town ? We can give you everything you need right here on the reserva- 

 tion" expresses the attitude of most reservation Wliites toward off- 

 reservation towns as contact institutions. 



The Santa Fe Railway employs large numbers of Navaho track 

 laborers (see "Railroad Work," pp. 129-133) , and to that extent might 

 be characterized as functionally dependent on the Navaho. The nor- 

 mal channel of communication between railroad and reservation is an 

 indirect and also a highly formalized one, involving as intermediaries 

 both the Railroad Retirement Board and the trader as its claims agent. 

 The economic welfare of the Navaho community is largely regarded as 

 the trader's unchallenged sphere of influence by other contact institu- 

 tions ; hence there is no significant communication with the railroad ex- 

 cept through the trader. Once they are off the reservation and at work, 

 of course, the contact between Navahos and the railroad is direct. 



In sum, it is the store, the school, and the hospital which most clearly 

 recognize and respect the legitimacy of one another's interest in the 

 Navaho community. Health, education, money, and material goods 

 are agreed, from their point of view, to be the basic items which 

 Navahos require from their White neighbors. To the extent that it 

 is able, therefore, each of these institutions is willing to assist the 

 others in providing such goods and services. Beyond these limits 

 there is no general agreement as to "what's good for the Navaho" — on 

 the contrary the trader, teacher, and doctor often like to believe that 

 they are all he needs or should want. The integration of other contact 

 institutions into the general communication network is therefore either 

 tenuous, situational, or nil. 



CR0S8-CULTUEAL RELATIONS 



Above and beyond all of the variables which have been discussed in 

 preceding pages, Navaho-White relations at the contact level are af- 

 fected to a very large extent by purely internal, structural-functional 

 features of the contact institutions and their role in the community. 

 For purposes of the Shonto study some 20 variables have been identi- 

 fied as determining the cross-cultural influence of contact institutions. 

 They are subdivided, to some extent arbitrarily, as historical factors, 

 factors of access, factors of role, and factors of communication. 



