Adams] SHONTO I ROLE OF NAVAHO TRADER 263 



erly a trade jargon or pidgin (see "Communication," pp. 212-214), 

 but at all events it is true that the trading post is the only White 

 contact institution which normally communicates with Navahos in 

 a language better controlled by them than by it. The contribution 

 of this one factor to the overall influence of Shonto Trading Post is 

 undoubtedly enormous. 



THE INFLUENCE OF SHONTO TRADING POST 



It is not necessary to elaborate further on chart L to establish 

 the fact that Shonto Trading Post is the principal source of cross- 

 cultural influence in Shonto community. The influence of the store 

 is consistently greater than that of any other contact institution; 

 in the fields of material culture, commerce, and economics it is greater 

 than that of all others combined. The various and diverse sources 

 of this influence, as set forth in preceding pages, may be reviewed 

 and summarized here in a few paragraphs. 



INTRACXILTUKAL OKrENTATIONS 



Shonto Trading Post has a greater number and variety of contacts 

 with areas and institutions within its own sociocultural system than 

 do other contact institutions at Shonto. Because of this as well as 

 its high frequency of communication with most members of the 

 Navaho conununity, the store is employed regularly or occasionally 

 by all manner of outside institutions as a channel of communication 

 with Navahos, and by Navahos for the reciprocal purpose. It is 

 Shonto's foremost line of communication with the outside world. 



INTBACULTXTRAIi RELATIONS AT THE CONTACT LEVEL 



The position of the trading post with regard to other contact 

 institutions is not essentially different from its external relations 

 with the American sociocultural system. The store has more, and 

 more frequent, contact with Shonto's other contact institutions than 

 they have with one another, and is used as a channel of communica- 

 tion by them as well as by outside organizations. 



CEOSS-CULTUEAL RELATIONS : HISTORICAL 



Shonto Trading Post was in operation nearly 20 years before any 

 other effective instrument of contact between Shonto and the Wliite 

 world was established. During that time its Navaho neighbors de- 

 veloped a pattern of dependence on the store in all their dealings 

 with the American sociocultural system which has persisted to a 

 large extent even after the establishment of other channels. Navaho 

 reaction to the store was friendly from the start and remained so, 

 whereas it was initially hostile or indifferent in the case of many other 

 contact institutions. 



