Navajo trading posts

Last updated
Hubbell Trading Post, Ganado, Arizona. Hubbell Trading Post 01.jpg
Hubbell Trading Post, Ganado, Arizona.
Populated places on the Navajo Reservation. Many of the populated places originated at the location of trading posts. NavajoNation map en.svg
Populated places on the Navajo Reservation. Many of the populated places originated at the location of trading posts.

Navajo trading posts flourished on the Navajo Indian Reservation in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah from 1868 until about 1970. Trading posts, usually owned by non-Navajos, were the origin of many populated places on the reservation. They were often the center of commercial, cultural, and social life for the Navajos. At their peak in the first half of the 20th century about 100 trading posts were scattered around the reservation. The most important items traded and sold by the Navajo to the traders were wool, sheep and goat skins, and woven textiles. The most important items purchased by the Navajo at the trading posts were flour, sugar, coffee, tobacco, cloth, and canned goods. In the late 20th century, most trading posts were replaced by Navajo-owned businesses, shopping centers, and convenience stores.

Contents

History

Prior to their defeat by Kit Carson in 1864, the Navajo had been both raiding and trading with the Hispanic settlements of New Mexico for more than 200 years, acquiring in the process large herds of sheep and other livestock. Following their defeat, the U.S. Army forced more than 8,000 Navajo to relocate to Bosque Redondo in eastern New Mexico in what is called The Long Walk. The war and the forced residence at Bosque Redondo devastated the Navajo's economy and made them familiar with and dependent upon U.S. Army provided rations and manufactured products. In 1868, the Navajo were permitted to return to their homeland in the Four Corners area of New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah. The U.S. government pledged to provide the returning Navajo with the means to make a living by farming and ranching and the Navajo pledged to halt their raiding. The 3,000 or more Navaho who had avoided the Long Walk came out of hiding and joined the returnees. [1] [2] [3]

Ruins of a trading post near Shonto, Arizona. Trading post ruins near Shonto Spring, February 2019.jpg
Ruins of a trading post near Shonto, Arizona.
First built in 1891, the Tuba trading post as it appeared in 2020. Tuba City-Tuba Trading Post-1905.jpg
First built in 1891, the Tuba trading post as it appeared in 2020.
A traditional Navajo hogan. Hogan Navajo.jpg
A traditional Navajo hogan.

The Navajo reservation was expanded over time to an area of 17,544,500 acres (71,000 km2; 27,413 sq mi). The reservation measures about 300 km (190 mi) east to west and 250 km (160 mi) north to south. [4] The seat of government is located in Window Rock, Arizona. The remoteness of much of the reservation and the Navajo need for goods produced by Hispanic and Anglo settlers led to the establishment of trading posts on their lands. As it might be a week distant by horseback from their homes to sources of supply, the trading posts brought goods to the Navajo rather than them having the necessity to travel off the reservation. The Navajo learned also that a market existed for products they produced including wool and woven blankets and carpets. The trading post became the vehicle both for the Navajo obtaining the goods they needed and a market for the products they wished to sell. [5] [6]

A sutler at Fort Defiance, Arizona began trading with the Navajo in 1851, but Fort Defiance closed in 1868 and the era of privately owned trading posts began. [7] The first license by the U.S. government for a trading post on the Navajo reservation was to Lehman Spiegelburg at Fort Defiance in 1868. In 1870, another Anglo was trading guns and ammunition to the Navajo for livestock. He sold the livestock in Albuquerque. In the early 1870s the precursor to the Hubbell Trading Post was established in Ganado, Arizona. Juan (or John) Lorenzo Hubbell took ownership of the trading post in 1878. The Hubbell post is now preserved as the Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site. Hubbell would eventually own 30 trading posts and other establishments on the Navajo Reservation. [8] Among the most isolated trading posts was Oljato in San Juan County, Utah. First established in 1906 by John and Louisa Wade Wetherill, the local Navajos had been little influenced by Hispanic and Anglo culture. [9] [10] [11]

The number of trading posts on the reservation expanded to almost 25 in 1885, 93 in 1939, more than 100 after World War II, and declining to 35 in 1970. A total of about 300 trading posts, many of them ephemeral, existed during the 100-plus years of their history. The number of trading posts declined as roads improved, access to vehicles expanded, and wage labor increased. Beginning in the mid-1960s, the Navajo government began promoting Navajo-owned businesses and constructing shopping centers in population centers on the reservation. By 2000, no more than a dozen trading posts survived. [10] [12]

Doing business

A trader needed a license from the U.S. government and the permission of the local Navajo headman to establish a trading post. Traders did not own the land on which their posts were located. Many trading posts originated when a trader with a buggy load of goods began trading products in a tent and, if business was good, built an adobe or stone building with a store, lodging for himself and his family and employees, and a special room for showing and selling Navajo-made blankets and carpets. A storage warehouse, a corral for horses, and possibly other outbuildings were near the main building. Trading posts were usually unpretentious in appearance. The store consisted of a reception area, called a "bull pen," with a plank or dirt floor. Navajo customers lolled in this area and conducted business leisurely, availing themselves of free tobacco and paper to roll cigarettes. High wooden counters enclosed the bull pen on three sides behind which the wares for sale were displayed. By regulation (and for their safety) most licensed traders on the reservation did not sell firearms or whiskey, although bootlegging of whiskey was common. Many traders kept a revolver behind the counter for protection. Many traders also dealt in horses which were pastured near the post. A Navajo dwelling, a hogan, built at the trader's expense, was near the post for the free use of any customers who came from a distance. Sometimes a spring was nearby; if not the trader had a well dug. [13]

The most important goods the trader sold were flour, coffee and sugar. Plugs of tobacco and cloth for making clothes were next. Canned food goods became important items for sale in the 20th century. Sheep wool was the most important product traded or sold by the Navajo to the trader. By 1888, the Navajo were selling 800,000 lb (360,000 kg) of wool for 8 to 10 cents per pound. They also sold sheep and goat skins to traders. Pine nuts were a major Navajo product in the infrequent years in which the pinyon pine produced large quantities of nuts. [14]

Resupply for the trading posts came from settlements around the periphery of the Navajo reservation. For some posts, resupply required only an ox-cart journey of a few days. For isolated posts, resupply took longer. Supplying the Oljato post of the Wetherills required a 21-day round trip from Gallup, New Mexico in the early 1900s. [15] Trading posts became more accessible with automobiles and road construction. Trader Clyde Colville constructed a road to his trading post at Kayenta in 1914. [16]

Money

A Navajo family and loom for weaving blankets, 1873 Navajofamilya.jpg
A Navajo family and loom for weaving blankets, 1873
Trader John Bradford Moore and a Navajo rug, 1911. J.-B.-Moore-Crystal-Trading-Post-with-Navajo-Rug.jpg
Trader John Bradford Moore and a Navajo rug, 1911.

Straight barter was common at posts, especially in the 19th century, but substitutes for cash, in short supply for traders and the Navajo, became necessary. In lieu of dealing with the Navajo in cash, many traders issued metal tokens valued at up to one dollar and redeemable for products at their trading post. Mexican silver dollars were popular with the Navajo. They melted the coins down to make silver jewelry for their personal adornment and a store of wealth as well as serving a growing market for Navajo jewelry. Pawnbrokering was practiced by many trading posts. Navajo income was seasonal, depending in the 19th century mostly upon harvests of wool, and Navajos would pawn their silver jewelry and other items in times when cash was short. The traders would hold the item until the customer could redeem it with a 10 percent interest charge. Pawn transactions were usually small. In 1909, the average pawn was valued at less than three dollars at one trading post. The use of tokens and the practice of pawning were both discouraged by the U.S. government. [17] [18]

Traders were sometimes overextended. When Richard Wetherill, better known for archaeology than business acumen, was murdered in 1910, he was owed eleven thousand dollars by Navajos, Anglos, and Hispanics. Most of the money was never collected. [19] By contrast, Hubbell had a virtual "empire" of trading posts and became also a prominent Arizona politician. [20]

An important source of income for the trading posts and Navajo families were blankets and rugs woven by women. Navaho weaving had long been praised for its quality and artistic appeal. In 1850, an American soldier characterized Navajo blankets as "the best in the world." [21] In the 1890s, traders began large-scale marketing of Navajo blankets and rugs to meet a growing demand. To increase production and often at the expense of quality, traders introduced new designs, aniline dyes, and manufactured wool and cotton yarn [22] [23]

Larger rugs might take Navajo women up to a year to complete. For many decades after 1868 weavers earned less than 5 cents per hour for their work. [24] The profit of the trader from selling weavings could be substantial. About 1970, for example, a Navajo weaver was paid 30 dollars for a rug which the trader priced at 250 dollars in his store. [25] Author M'Closkey has asserted that the contribution of Navajo women to the economy of the Navajo has been ignored by historians. "Decade after decade, the importance, the necessity, even the survival of the Navajo rested primarily on women's textile production and the wool from their sheep." [26]

Decline of trading posts

Until World War II, the trading post and the trader were often the only daily contact of the Navaho with Anglo-American society. "The trader was not only the sole source of white society's goods; he was also the post office, interpreter, scribe, banker, creditor, newscaster, employment agent, railroad claims agent, ambulance driver, and furnished the community social center." [27] Some traders became deeply embedded in Navajo culture and language. Louisa Wade Wetherill, for example, was an expert in Navajo sand painting and medicinal plants. [28]

Some traders were disreputable. Complaints about questionable business practices by traders led to an investigation and hearings by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in 1972. Traders were accused of price fixing, withholding government checks from recipients, and violations of the Truth in Lending Act. Pushback on the FTC report and hearings included one scholar who described the hearings as "political theater" and "the Ivy League meets the Wild West." [29] The FTC proposed reforms, but by that time alternatives and competition to the trading posts had increased and the trading post system was declining in importance. [30] The FTC investigations led some traders to close their posts. [31]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crystal, New Mexico</span> Census-designated place in New Mexico, US

Crystal is a census-designated place (CDP) on the Navajo Nation in McKinley and San Juan counties in New Mexico, United States. The population was 311 at the 2010 census. It is located at the western end of the Narbona Pass.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Long Walk of the Navajo</span> 1864 act of ethnic cleansing in the US

The Long Walk of the Navajo, also called the Long Walk to Bosque Redondo, was the 1864 deportation and attempted ethnic cleansing of the Navajo people by the United States federal government. Navajos were forced to walk from their land in what is now Arizona to eastern New Mexico. Some 53 different forced marches occurred between August 1864 and the end of 1866. Some anthropologists claim that the "collective trauma of the Long Walk...is critical to contemporary Navajos' sense of identity as a people".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Navajo Wars</span> Series of wars fought by Navajo Indians in the Southwest

The term Navajo Wars covers at least three distinct periods of conflict in the American West: the Navajo against the Spanish ; the Navajo against the Mexican government ; and the Navajo against the United States. These conflicts ranged from small-scale raiding to large expeditions mounted by governments into territory controlled by the Navajo. The Navajo Wars also encompass the widespread raiding that took place throughout the period; the Navajo raided other tribes and nearby settlements, who in return raided into Navajo territory, creating a cycle of raiding that perpetuated the conflict.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site</span> Cultural landmark in Apache County, Arizona, US

Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site is a historic site on Highway 191, north of Chambers, with an exhibit center in Ganado, Arizona. It is considered a meeting ground of two cultures between the Navajo and the settlers who came to the area to trade.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Navajo-Churro</span> North American sheep breed

The Navajo-Churro, or Churro for short, is a breed of domestic sheep originating with the Spanish Churra sheep obtained by the Diné around the 16th century during the Spanish Conquest. Its wool consists of a protective topcoat and soft undercoat. Some rams have four fully developed horns, a trait shared with few other breeds in the world. The breed is highly resistant to disease. Ewes often birth twins, and they have good mothering instincts. This breed is raised primarily for wool, although some also eat their meat.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Navajo</span> Native American people of the United States

The Navajo are a Native American people of the Southwestern United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Wetherill</span> American archaeologist

Richard Wetherill (1858–1910), a member of a Colorado ranching family, was an amateur archaeologist who discovered, researched and excavated sites associated with the Ancient Pueblo People. He is credited with the rediscovery of Cliff Palace in Mesa Verde in Colorado and was responsible for initially selecting the term Anasazi, Navajo for ancient enemies, as the name for these ancient people. He also excavated Kiet Seel ruin, now in Navajo National Monument in northeastern Arizona, and Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Navajo weaving</span> Textile art by Navajo people of the US

Navajo weaving are textiles produced by Navajo people, who are based near the Four Corners area of the United States. Navajo textiles are highly regarded and have been sought after as trade items for more than 150 years. Commercial production of handwoven blankets and rugs has been an important element of the Navajo economy. As one art historian wrote, "Classic Navajo serapes at their finest equal the delicacy and sophistication of any pre-mechanical loom-woven textile in the world."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Navajo Livestock Reduction</span> Forced reduction of animals owned by the Navajos

The Navajo Livestock Reduction was imposed by the United States government upon the Navajo Nation in the 1930s, during the Great Depression. The reduction of herds was justified by the government by stating that grazing areas were becoming eroded and had deteriorated due to too many animals.

The Pueblo linguistic area is a Sprachbund consisting of the languages spoken in and near North American Pueblo locations. There are also many shared cultural practices in this area. For example, these cultures share many ceremonial vocabulary terms meant for prayer or song.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bluff War</span> Armed conflict between the USA and Native Americans 1914–1915

The Bluff War, also known as Posey War of 1915, or the Polk and Posse War, was one of the last armed conflicts between the United States and Ute and Paiute Native Americans (Indians) in Utah. In March 1914, several Utes accused Tse-ne-gat, the son of the Paiute Chief Narraguinnep ("Polk"), of murdering a shepherd named Juan Chacon. When a posse attempted to arrest Tse-ne-gat in February 1915, the Paiute and Ute bands headed by Polk and Posey resisted and several people on both sides were killed or wounded. The conflict took place near the town of Bluff, Utah. In March 1915, after negotiations, Polk surrendered Tse-ne-gat to U.S. Army General Hugh L. Scott. In July 1915 he was found innocent of murder in a trial in Denver.

Williams v. Lee, 358 U.S. 217 (1959), was a landmark case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that the State of Arizona does not have jurisdiction to try a civil case between a non-Indian doing business on a reservation with tribal members who reside on the reservation, the proper forum for such cases being the tribal court.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Narbona Pass</span>

Narbona Pass is a pass through the natural break between the Tunicha and Chuska Mountains, an elongated range on the Colorado Plateau on the Navajo Nation. A paved road, New Mexico Highway 134, crosses the range through Narbona Pass, connecting Sheep Springs to Crystal. Contrary to Navajo tradition of not naming monuments after people, the pass was given the name Narbona to celebrate his victory over an invading Mexican army that was sent to destroy the Navajo in 1835. Known in the Navajo Language as So Sila, the pass was lately named in English for Colonel John M. Washington in 1859. He was a New Mexico military governor who led an expedition into Navajo country in 1849 in which he was accused of walling up a Navajo Spring, and whose troops later shot Navajo leader Narbona.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Bradford Moore</span>

John Bradford Moore (1855–1926) was a trader who established a post at Crystal, New Mexico, at the western end of the Narbona Pass, where he developed the manufacture of Navajo blankets for sale in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elizabeth Compton Hegemann</span>

Elizabeth Compton Hegemann was an early 20th century American photographer, trader, and author best known for her photographs of Southwest Native American peoples taken during the 1920s and 1930s, especially the Navajo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oljato Trading Post</span> Historic trading post in Utah, United States

Oljato Trading Post was a trading post located on the western edge of Oljato–Monument Valley, Utah. The site was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 20, 1980. In 2021, it was named by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in its list of America's Most Endangered Places.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grace Henderson Nez</span> Navajo weaver (1913–2006)

Grace Henderson Nez was a Navajo weaver, known for her traditional designs. Her main styles were old designs from the 19th century and Ganado style. Some of her work was demonstrated at the Hubbell Trading Post, which is home to an archive of works from various Navajo weavers. Before her death in 2006, she was able to win two lifetime achievement awards for her work, including a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Daisy Taugelchee was a Navajo weaver. The Denver Art Museum declared Taugelchee as "widely considered the most talented Navajo weaver and spinner who ever lived". In 2004 one of her rugs was featured on a United States Postal Service stamp.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louisa Wade Wetherill</span> American explorer and trader

Louisa Wade Wetherill lived with her husband and children in remote trading posts among the Navajo people in New Mexico, Utah, and Arizona for more than 25 years and became an authority on Navajo culture. She spoke the Navajo language and became expert in medicinal herbs and plants known to the Navajo, art, especially sandpainting, traditional stories, and weaving. She was known by the Navajo as Asthon Sosi or "Slim Woman."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">J. Lorenzo Hubbell</span> Arizona politician (1853–1930)

John Lorenzo Hubbell was a member of the Arizona State Senate. He was elected to serve in the 1st Arizona State Legislature from Apache County. He served in the Senate from March 1912 until March 1914. Hubbell was the long-time owner of the Hubbell Trading Post established in 1878 on the Navajo Reservation in Ganado, Arizona. The trading post is preserved as the Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site.

References

  1. ↑ Kelley, Klara B. (Fall 1985). "Ethnoarchaeology of Navajo Trading Posts". Kiva. 51 (1): 19–37. doi:10.1080/00231940.1985.11758047. JSTOR   30247700.
  2. ↑ "The Trading Post System on the Navajo Reservation" (PDF). ERIC. Federal Trade Commission. 1973. pp. 5–6. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
  3. ↑ McNitt, Frank (1989). The Navajo Traders. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. pp. 35, 45–47, 231. ISBN   0806122137. First published in 1962
  4. ↑ "Navajo Population Profile - 2010 U.S. Census" (PDF). Navajo Nation Government. Retrieved 8 April 2021.
  5. ↑ "Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site". National Park Service. Retrieved 22 December 2022.
  6. ↑ Linford, Laurance D. (2000). Navajo Places. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press. p. 23. ISBN   9780874806243 . Retrieved 20 December 2022.
  7. ↑ Trading Post System 1973, pp. 4–6.
  8. ↑ "Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site--American Latino Heritage: A Discover Our Shared Heritage Travel Itinerary". www.nps.gov. Retrieved 2023-01-05.
  9. ↑ Leake, Harvey (September 30, 2019). "A Home on the Desert: Establishment of the Wetherill-Colville Trading Post at Oljato, Utah in 1906". Canyon Country Zephyr. Retrieved 21 December 2021.
  10. 1 2 Linford 2000, pp. 23–24.
  11. ↑ McNitt 1989, pp. 271, 341, 343.
  12. ↑ "50 Years of Trading Posts Face End of Operations". Navajo Times. Retrieved 8 January 2023.
  13. ↑ McNitt 1989, pp. 53–55, 69–79, 81.
  14. ↑ McNitt 1989, pp. 79–83.
  15. ↑ Leake 2019.
  16. ↑ Poling-Kempes, Lesley (2015). Ladies of the Canyons. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. pp. 155–156. ISBN   9780816524945.. Downloaded from Project MUSE.
  17. ↑ McNitt 1989, pp. 83–86.
  18. ↑ Kiser, William S. (Spring 2012). "Navajo Pawn: A Misunderstood Traditional Trading Practice". American Indian Quarterly. 36 (2). see pages 153–155 of 150–181.
  19. ↑ McNittt, Frank (2003). Richard Wetherill: Anasazi. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. pp. 313–317. ISBN   0826303293.
  20. ↑ "The Winslow Visitors Center: A Hubbell Trading Post History" (PDF). Old Trails Museum. Winslow Historical Society. Retrieved 4 January 2022.
  21. ↑ M'Closkey, Kathy (Autumn 1994). "Marketing Multiple Myths: The Hidden History of Navajo Weaving". Journal of the Southwest. 36 (3): 189. JSTOR   40169908 . Retrieved 8 January 2023.
  22. ↑ Trading Post System 1973, pp. 6–7.
  23. ↑ McNitt 1989, pp. 203–212.
  24. ↑ M'Closkey, 1994 & pages 215-216.
  25. ↑ Trading Post System 1973, p. 28.
  26. ↑ M'Closkey 1994, p. 216.
  27. ↑ Trading Post System 1973, p. 11.
  28. ↑ Gillmor, Frances; Wetherill, Louisa Wade (1934). Traders to the Navajos: the story of the Wetherills of Kayenta. Houghton Mifflin Company. p. 54. OCLC   383828.
  29. ↑ Lamphere, Louise (March 2004). "Review of Navajo Trading: the End of an Era by Willow Roberts Powell". American Anthropologist. 106 (1): 202–203. doi:10.1525/aa.2004.106.1.202. JSTOR   3567485 . Retrieved 8 January 2023.
  30. ↑ Trading Post System 1973, pp. 15–30, 49–62.
  31. ↑ Linford 2000, p. 25.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.