The Navajo Goes to Market

THE Navajo GOES TO

TO THE Navajos, their trading post is Sach's Fifth Avenue, the Chase National Bank, F. W. Woolworth and Company, Sears, Roebuck, the Pay'n Takit, and the corner grocery all wrapped up in one.

Here they sell their blankets, their lambs, their wool and here they buy their salt, coffee, flour, clothes, and all other necessities and delicious luxuries like red soda pop and candy. They think nothing of riding twenty to thirty miles over their beloved land to the trading Red soda pop is delight for all Navajos-young and old alike. Pop and candy are luxuries, bought after necessities.

post. The trip isn't made so often but it combines the business of shopping with the social delights of a Saturday night in town.

Old friends who have not seen each other for months will meet at the trading post and engage in absorbing gossip. The Navajos, you know, do not live in towns or even in villages, but wander by themselves in family groups over the reservation finding the greenest grass for their sheep. So the trading post combines also the adventures of the town hall and the social gathering places.

From the trader they learn of the doings at Window Rock and generally what is happening to the tribe and the world outside.

And when times are bad, the trading post is a place to get food in trade for jewelry, the jewelry to be redeemed when times are good. And if sickness or hard luck overtakes them, the trader is the one they turn to and so seldom do they turn in vain.

In short the trader is a banker, a friend, an adviser, a store-keeper, and a trader to the Navajos. He trusts them and they trust him, but they realize that business is business and that they both have to be sharp in each other's presence. And now the trader has a more difficult task than ever: he has to try to explain the intricasies of point rationing to his customers, and a hard task it is, too. Coffee is very important to the Navajo, and it is hard for him to understand that he cannot buy all the coffee he wants, whether he has the money or the goods to trade for it. But regardless of everything the trading post is an important part in the Navajo's life.

And in the days before the war there was an extra delight at the trading post, for travelers were always there from the outside, wide eyed and staring, generously offering a quarter or so for the family portrait. The Navajos are happy people and get fun out of so many things. To them the trading post is a serious business, but it's fun, too, a place to shop unhurridly and to talk awhile, and to laugh. R. C.

There is weighing and bargaining, goods are priced. The lady of the family, who keeps house, orders goods. After business then there is time for further conversation and jokes. Trader Goulding knows that market day is a big day for this family, makes them feel perfectly at home.