Trent Tanner and Dr. Jill Rudy, English Department
Trading relationships between the Navajo Indians and Anglo-American frontiersmen began in the late 1860s after the Navajo were released from their internment at Ft. Sumner by the US government. These intrepid men carried to the Navajo such goods as coffee, lard, and white flour as well as western farming tools in exchange for goods such as Navajo weavings, sheep wool, and silver jewelry. Among these men was my great-great-great grandfather, Seth Tanner, also called Hastiin Shash, or “Man Bear.” (see picture 1). He was the beginning of what has become a five-generation Tanner Navajo trading legacy which continues today.
The Navajo trading industry has been greatly affected by many changes, both on and off the Navajo Indian reservation. Among those changes, perhaps the most notable have been the improvement of roads and transportation accessibility to the Navajo, the advent of chain grocery stores on the reservation, and especially the drastic tribal commerce regulations of the 1970s. Many scholars, Navajos and even long-time traders themselves have generally accepted a notion that Navajo trading reached the end of its era due to these many changes surrounding and within the industry. I spent three months living on the Navajo reservation just outside of Gallup, NM, and conducting research in Gallup about the current state of Navajo trading establishments in the area in order to better understand how they compare and contrast with traditional Navajo trading establishments (which I define as posts operating between approx. 1870 and 1970 both on and near the Navajo reservation).
To begin my research, I carried out unique insider participant observations at a local trading post, Shush Yaz Trading Co. In essence, I worked as a part-time employee at the store where I learned first-hand about the basic operations of a modern Navajo trading post; I learned how to complete transactions, how to better serve customers, how the pawn department works, etc. These few weeks were invaluable in immersing me in the Navajo trading culture and industry. I then began to conduct observations of other local trading establishments. These observations allowed me to better understand the current customer/trader dynamics as well as to find out the wide variety of products which are being marketed by various posts. I also sought out informal interview opportunities with the local traders. My interview method proved to be one of my greatest challenges. At first I hoped to have semiformal interviews but soon realized that many of these traders were not interested in committing so much time and formality to a researcher when they had so many other tasks and customers to attend to. I therefore had to adapt my plan to involve shorter, less formal conversations with traders, often taking place over the showcase counter in between customers.
After data collection and analysis, I have arrived at a few important conclusions with regards to the modern Navajo trading industry and how it compares and contrasts with traditional Navajo trading. The most essential discovery I made is summed up well by the son of a long-time trader and trading post employee himself, Tony Tanner of T&R Market, Gallup, NM. When asked, “What makes a Navajo trading post a Navajo trading post?” he responded, “The word Navajo.” He meant that a true Navajo trading post is an establishment that knows and caters to the Navajo needs before anyone else’s, including Anglo-European tourists’; that in order to know their needs you must first know and understand their culture and their ways. That is what the most traditional trading posts were doing from the very beginning and I discovered that there are still many today doing the same: striving to provide the Navajo people with what they want and need.
Corollary to the finding stated above is my conclusion that the needs of the Navajo that many modern traders are striving to meet are specifically related to the Navajo traditions and culture as opposed to the Navajo needs which are basically the same as the average westerner’s needs which can be found quite readily at the local Wal-Mart for example. In other words, modern trading posts have continued the pattern of equipping the Navajo with the goods that they want and require for their uniquely Navajo ways. These include such goods as deer pelts and woven baskets for traditional ceremonies, silver and turquoise jewelry, and silversmith and weaving supplies. Unlike traditional posts, however, which were carriers of western goods like coffee, canned foods, etc., most modern trading posts no longer carry groceries and other products which are now much more easily and cheaply obtained at a local chain grocery store.
At the deepest foundations of the Navajo trading industry there have always been the economic factors. Anglo-Americans like my ancestors ventured onto the reservation seeking, among other things, a means of economic support for themselves and their families. They made a living of dealing in goods the Navajo people wanted and needed to sustain life and their traditions. The same is still true of many modern trading establishments in the Gallup, NM, area: traders are providing the Navajo with the goods they want and need to maintain their traditional way of life. I also found that many of the traders I spoke with still consider themselves more economically dependent on their Navajo customer base than on their tourist customer base. These findings considered, I feel that while the surface of modern trading posts are far removed from traditional posts, many still share the same foundations that traditional posts established.