Adams] SHONTO: ROLE OF NAVAHO TRADER 295 



products of modern American industry. By operational charter it 

 is also the principal and often the sole point of contact and channel 

 of communication between Shonto Navahos and the White world 

 wliich surrounds and impinges on them. As a result of various fac- 

 tors in the history as well as the present structure of Navaho-White 

 contact, the trading post has a power to influence adult Navaho percep- 

 tions, behavior, and attitudes which is unrivaled by any other Wliite 

 agency. 



This "cross-cultural power" of the trading post is exerted overtly 

 and covertly to further its own purpose of maximum sustained profit. 

 As a contact agent the trader both deliberately and subconsciously se- 

 lects and reinterprets the elements and influences of White culture 

 which are presented to the Navaho community, in such a way as to 

 divert the impact of culture contact very largely into material and 

 economic channels. On the one hand, the trader assists Navahos in 

 taking advantage of the added economic opportunities resulting from 

 contact with the White world. On the other hand, he opposes and 

 resists any concomitant changes in other aspects of the Navaho socio- 

 cultural system which would threaten its historic and structurally 

 inherent dependence upon the trading post. By precept and action 

 he strives for the goal of stabilized pluralism in Navaho-White rela- 

 tions (see Summer Seminar on Acculturation, 1954, p. 990) . 



Historically, the influence of Shonto Trading Post upon its Navaho 

 clientele can be measured in two respects. First, the presence and 

 activities of the trader have significantly altered the material culture 

 complex and raised the material standard of living in the community 

 without bringing about any comparable change in other native tradi- 

 tions (cf. pp. 53-94 and chart M, p. 265). Secondly, the trader's ac- 

 tivities have greatly expanded the economic base of the community 

 without altering its essentially seasonal and subsistence nature. Ex- 

 pansion of the Navaho economy under the aegis of the trader has pro- 

 duced neither capital nor wealth, but simply a much higher level of 

 material consumption. The economy of Shonto community today re- 

 mains essentially a vast redistribution system in which the trader is the 

 direct or indirect source and also the ultimate recipient of all of the 

 financial benefits derived from contact with the White world. 



THE QUINTESSENCE OF PATERNALISM 



Critics of Indian Bureau policy, particularly on the Navaho Ees- 

 ervation, have sometimes been wont to accuse the Government of 

 "paternalism" (see, e.g., Phelps-Stokes Fund, 1939, pp. 27-38). This 

 is especially the view taken by assimilationists. It is argued that the 

 Government "babies" the Indians, protects them from the hard reali- 



