Navajo trading posts
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.
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.
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 number of trading posts declined as roads improved, access to vehicles expanded, and wage labor increased.
[10][12] A trader needed a license from the U.S. government and the permission of the local Navajo headman to establish a trading post.
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.
Navajo customers lolled in this area and conducted business leisurely, availing themselves of free tobacco and paper to roll cigarettes.
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.
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.
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.
"[26] Until World War II, the trading post and the trader were often the only daily contact of the Navaho with Anglo-American society.
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.
