294 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BoU. 188 



(see, e.g., Kroeber, 1928, p. 386; Luomala, 1938, p. 16; Kluckhohn 

 and Leighton, 1946, p. 28; Underhill, 1956, p. ix). 



Navaho cultural adaptability undoubtedly continues to be manifest 

 in many aspects of modern life. It might be argued from this that 

 the type of relatively conflict-free intercultural adjustment .(cf . Leigh- 

 ton and Kluckhohn, 1948, pp. 139-143) which has taken place at 

 Shonto, confined largely to economics and material culture (cf. chart 

 M, p. 265; also Kluckholin and Leighton, 1946, p. 28), is due entirely 

 to the "self -correcting mechanisms" (Summer Seminar on Accultura- 

 tion, 1954, p. 977) of Navaho culture itself. A glance at the total 

 Navaho picture, however, immediately reveals that the pattern of 

 Navaho-White cultural relations is far from consistent throughout 

 the reservation. In a great many areas culture contact is anything 

 but free from conflict, and has wrought such non-assimilative con- 

 ditions as cultural disintegration (see, e.g., Leighton and Kluckhohn, 

 1948, pp. 129-133; Rapoport, 1954, pp. 71-77) and nativistic reaction 

 (e.g., Leighton and Kluckhohn, 1948, pp. 122-126; Underhill, 1956, 

 pp. 247-249). 



As was stated in an earlier section of this work ("Summary," 

 pp. 93-94) , the difference in cultural adaptation as between one area 

 of the Navaho country and another is attributable not to regional vari- 

 ations in native Navaho life, but to quantitative and qualitative varia- 

 tions in the structure of culture contact. In a general way, it is 

 observable that cultural change has been least, and most free from 

 conflict, in the northwestern portion of the Navaho Reservation, 

 where the Anglo-American sociocultural system has been represented 

 largely or exclusively by trading posts (cf. Kluckhohn and Leighton, 

 1946, pp. 29-30, 55; Leighton and Klucldiolin, 1948, pp. 122, 139^3). 

 If the continued flourishing of sheep-raising can be taken as an index, 

 both symbolic and economic, of the persistence of Navaho cultural in- 

 dependence, then it may be appropriate to note that all but one of the 

 six land-management districts in which actual range use still exceeds 

 permitted capacity are those around and adjacent to Shonto, in the 

 northwestern Navaho Country (see Young, 1955, pp. 190-191). This 

 is the region which remains preeminently the domain of the trader. 

 In short, an important "correcting mechanism" of modern Navaho 

 culture, helping to maintain its equilibrium in the face of continued 

 White cultural encroachment (see Summer Seminar on Acculturation, 

 1954, pp. 977-978) is none other than the trading post. 



SUMMARY 



Shonto Trading Post is by formal charter the principal and often 

 the sole exchange agency where the gainful products of Navaho 

 native enterprise and Navaho labor are exchanged for the material 



