286 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BoU. 188 



dow Kock won't allow it" ; prices are high because he has to pay such 

 a high rental fee to the tribe ; or he would like to modernize the store 

 building but it does not really belong to him. 



THE EDEAl, NAVAHO 



Many traders express the opinion that Navahos are congenitally 

 indolent, so that there is not, from their point of view, any such thing 

 as an "ideal Navaho." Shonto's trader, however, is actually able to 

 point to an "ideal Navaho" in the community. This individual is 

 cited and extolled repeatedly (though not in his own presence) as 

 embodying all of the qualities which the White world expects and 

 values in a Navaho. So far as the trader is concerned he sets the stand- 

 ard of behavior for the whole community. 



Shonto's "ideal Navaho" is a man of 44 who is, it is hardly necessary 

 to add, one of the community's most unusual personalities as regards 

 the personal adjustment which he has made between Navaho and 

 Wliite values. He has been a regular seasonal employee of Navajo 

 National Monument for some 20 years, and has acquired a wide va- 

 riety of job skills, from road grading to stonemasonry, all of which 

 he performs with extreme competence. He is a completely reliable 

 worker — punctual in arriving and constantly industrious on the job. 

 He is always available for work when needed, and does not take time 

 off without obtaining prior permission. 



He is equally unusual in his relations with the store. Although, 

 like his neighbors, he lives to a large extent on credit, he keeps 

 close track of his account and budgets himself so that he never 

 quite reaches liis limit and has to be "cut off." He is the only regu- 

 lar and extensive recipient of credit in Shonto community whose 

 credit has never, in the writer's knowledge, been stopped for any 

 reason. Finally, he is thoroughly conscientious in paying his bill in 

 full whenever he receives his paycheck. In short, his economic val- 

 ues correspond to Wliite ideals. 



In all other respects Shonto's "ideal Navaho" hews close to tra- 

 ditional Navaho ideals. He lives in an ordinary hogan with his wife 

 and seven children, wears long hair, and speaks no English (although 

 he is reputed to understand a good deal of it from his long work 

 experience at Betatakin). He has never been to school. He has a 

 very large flock of sheep, sells his lambs and wool to the store every 

 year, and is an assiduous farmer. He is orderly in his behavior, does 

 not drink or fight, and regularly attends and participates in native 

 religious performances. He seldom if ever goes to Flagstaff. 



This individual, who seems to have made a deliberate decision to 

 remain an unacculturated Navaho in matters other than economic, 

 has made the sort of personal adjustment between two worlds which 

 corresponds to the trader's ideal for the whole Navaho tribe. His 



