274 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BnU. 188 



and shoe prices as against the alleged (and sometimes fictitious) 

 prices charged by competing merchants for the same items. His 

 most common sales pitch is : "It would cost you more in town." Sim- 

 ilarly, when Navahos complain about high prices, as is not uncom- 

 mon, his invariable reply is: "It's just the same in town. Things 

 are going up everywhere." 



By comparison to his own store, the trader is able to say about 

 nearly every competitor either that its retail prices are too high, its 

 commodity prices too low, its merchandise inferior, or its proprietor 

 dishonest. His most vociferous disparagement, however, is reserved 

 for Flagstaff; not so much for competing merchants as for the town 

 itself. He dwells on the presence of bars and bootleggers, prosti- 

 tutes, and petty thieves, and other evils designed especially to vic- 

 timize the unwary Navaho (cf. "Intracultural Relations at the Con- 

 tact Level," pp. 253-356). This type of propaganda has the effect of 

 making the Flagstaff merchants guilty by association ; implying that 

 their admittedly attractive advertising serves only to draw Navahos 

 into the clutches of town predators. 



MAXIMUM SALES 



Traders have long since discovered that Navahos, like other people, 

 generally find it much easier to spend money which they do not have 

 than money which is actually in their possession. For this reason 

 they have concentrated on credit saturation as their primary tech- 

 nique of sales promotion (see "Sales Promotion," pp. 180-182; also 

 Kluckhohn and Leighton, 1946, p. 39). Ancillary functions of the 

 trading post assist this practice in several ways. First of all, the 

 trader's functions as channel of communication, as well as mail distrib- 

 utor, frequently furnish him with advance information about Navaho 

 income, allowing him to grant credit against it and thereby encumber 

 it before it actually arrives. 



As claims agent (see "Railroad Work," pp. 129-133) the trader has 

 official information as to when his clients will begin to receive unem- 

 ployment compensation, and how much they will receive. He obtains 

 the same kind of advance information with regard to welfare income 

 by intercepting and opening letters addressed to Shonto Navahos by 

 the State Department of Public Welf are.^* 



" The action of the trader as agent for welfare claimants Is in every way parallel to 

 his function as claims agent for railroad workers, except that It Is without official sanc- 

 tion of any kind. Nevertheless it has become so completely institutionalized that both 

 Navahos and traders themselves have come to regard it as one of their official functions. 

 Shonto's trader argues openly that his intercession is necessary in securing benefits — 

 that his clients would never get on relief without his help — and that therefore he is 

 entitled to the same perquisites that he enjoys as claims agent. At any rate few if any 

 Shonto Navahos realize that communications regarding their welfare status are actually 

 addressed to them and not to the trader. 



