Adams] SHONTO: ROLE OF NAVAHO TRADER 279 



ervation, and the trading post for many Navahos was the beginning 

 and the end of the "Wliite world (see Klluckhohn and Leighton, 1946, 

 p. 79; Sanders et al., 1953, p. 233). As one trader of over 40 years' 

 experience put it, "In the old days the Government minded its own 

 business and left the traders alone." Those were the days when, so 

 long as wool prices held up, "all you had to do to make a profit was 

 to open the doors," in the words of the same informant, and it was not 

 necessary to keep any books. 



The years since 1930 have seen a general broadening of the area of 

 contact between the Navaho and White worlds, accompanied by in- 

 creasingly unstable social and economic conditions on the reservation. 

 These processes are clearly recognized as a threat to the Navaho trad- 

 ing post no less than to the economic complex to which it is adapted. 

 To counteract them most traders try in a variety of ways to preserve 

 the conditions and relationships which prevailed before 1930, and 

 especially to preserve their own paramount position in the structure 

 of cultural contact (cf. pp. 231-267). 



It was noted earlier ("Intracultural Relations at the Contact 

 Level," pp. 253-256), however, that in recent years Shonto Trading 

 Post has admitted the community school and the Tuba City Hospital to 

 partnership as representatives of the White world. These three insti- 

 tutions recognize the legitimacy or at least the inevitability of each 

 other's interests and motivations, and are thus enabled to work in 

 consistent harmony. The school and the hospital remain at the 

 present time, however, the only agencies with which Shonto's trader 

 is willing to share the responsibility of first-hand culture contact. He 

 noticeably does not encourage Shonto Navahos to seek out other White 

 individuals or agencies ; on the contrary by precept and performance 

 he encourages them to leave all such contacts in his hands. He openly 

 avows that his special familiarity with the White world, coupled with 

 his special sympathy with Navaho interests, makes him better able to 

 look after the welfare of his clients than are they themselves. So far 

 as the writer's knowledge goes, no Shonto Navaho has ever been ad- 

 vised or encouraged by the trader to go to Tuba City or Flagstaff for 

 any purpose except to go to the hospital. He is likely to suggest that 

 all other functions be left in his hands. 



Above all, the trader discourages mobility. This objective in- 

 volves not only various positive sanctions such as impeding the pur- 

 chase and use of cars, but also the effort to see that as many as pos- 

 sible of the community's wants are satisfied in the community. It 

 means that he must perform himself the functions for which Nava- 

 hos would otherwise have to go elsewhere. In a sense it also involves 

 him in the effort to keep the community's wants restricted to those 

 things which he can supply. Shonto's trader freely expresses his 

 fear of creating new demands which might be as well or better sat- 



