Navajo Trading: The End of an Era

Description

Author: Powers, Willow Roberts  (1943-2018)

Publisher: University of New Mexico Press

Pub Date: 2001

Binding: Hardcover

Condition:  Both book and dust jacket: Good.  As new.

Notes:  Peddlers in wagons began trading with the Navajo in the 1870s.  That process evolved into the trading post, where barter became the mode of exchange–Navajo jewelry, rugs, wool in exchange for groceries, pawn, ammunition.  By the 1950s trading posts were seen as obstacles to “modernization.”  The Federal Trade Commission got involved with the process, when changes in both Navajo and white cultures led to the investigation of trading practices, resulting in the death of most traditional trading posts.  Hubbell, Teec Nos Pos, Shonto, Jeddito, Wide Ruins, Crownpoint, Rough Rock, Many Farms, all gone, along with dozens and dozens more.