Along Navajo Trails

Along Navajo Trails PDF Author: Will Evans
Publisher: University Press of Colorado
ISBN: 1457174898
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 422

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Book Description
Will Evans's writings should find a special niche in the small but significant body of literature from and about traders to the Navajos. Evans was the proprietor of the Shiprock Trading Company. Probably more than most of his fellow traders, he had a strong interest in Navajo culture. The effort he made to record and share what he learned certainly was unusual. He published in the Farmington and New Mexico newspapers and other periodicals, compiling many of his pieces into a book manuscript. His subjects were Navajos he knew and traded with, their stories of historic events such as the Long Walk, and descriptions of their culture as he, an outsider without academic training, understood it. Evans's writings were colored by his fondness for, uncommon access to, and friendships with Navajos, and by who he was: a trader, folk artist, and Mormon. He accurately portrayed the operations of a trading post and knew both the material and artistic value of Navajo crafts. His art was mainly inspired by Navajo sandpainting. He appropriated and, no doubt, sometimes misappropriated that sacred art to paint surfaces and objects of all kinds. As a Mormon, he had particular views of who the Navajos were and what they believed and was representative of a large class of often-overlooked traders. Much of the Navajo trade in the Four Corners region and farther west was operated by Mormons. They had a significant historical role as intermediaries, or brokers, between Native and European American peoples in this part of the West. Well connected at the center of that world, Evans was a good spokesperson.

Along Navajo Trails

Along Navajo Trails PDF Author: Will Evans
Publisher: University Press of Colorado
ISBN: 1457174898
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 422

Get Book Here

Book Description
Will Evans's writings should find a special niche in the small but significant body of literature from and about traders to the Navajos. Evans was the proprietor of the Shiprock Trading Company. Probably more than most of his fellow traders, he had a strong interest in Navajo culture. The effort he made to record and share what he learned certainly was unusual. He published in the Farmington and New Mexico newspapers and other periodicals, compiling many of his pieces into a book manuscript. His subjects were Navajos he knew and traded with, their stories of historic events such as the Long Walk, and descriptions of their culture as he, an outsider without academic training, understood it. Evans's writings were colored by his fondness for, uncommon access to, and friendships with Navajos, and by who he was: a trader, folk artist, and Mormon. He accurately portrayed the operations of a trading post and knew both the material and artistic value of Navajo crafts. His art was mainly inspired by Navajo sandpainting. He appropriated and, no doubt, sometimes misappropriated that sacred art to paint surfaces and objects of all kinds. As a Mormon, he had particular views of who the Navajos were and what they believed and was representative of a large class of often-overlooked traders. Much of the Navajo trade in the Four Corners region and farther west was operated by Mormons. They had a significant historical role as intermediaries, or brokers, between Native and European American peoples in this part of the West. Well connected at the center of that world, Evans was a good spokesperson.

Traders to the Navajos

Traders to the Navajos PDF Author: Frances Gillmor
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781376210743
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 278

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Book Description


Navajo Trading

Navajo Trading PDF Author: Willow Roberts Powers
Publisher: UNM Press
ISBN: 9780826323224
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
This overview is the first to examine trading in the last quarter of the twentieth century, when changes in both Navajo and white cultures led to the investigation of trading practices by the Federal Trade Commission, resulting in the demise of most traditional trading posts.

Patterns of Exchange

Patterns of Exchange PDF Author: Teresa J. Wilkins
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 0806186623
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
The Navajo rugs and textiles that people admire and buy today are the result of many historical influences, particularly the interaction between Navajo weavers and the traders who guided their production and controlled their sale. John Lorenzo Hubbell and other late-nineteenth-century traders were convinced they knew which patterns and colors would appeal to Anglo-American buyers, and so they heavily encouraged those designs. In Patterns of Exchange, Teresa J. Wilkins traces how the relationships between generations of Navajo weavers and traders affected Navajo weaving. The Navajos valued their relationships with Hubbell and others who operated trading posts on their reservation. As a result, they did not always see themselves as exploited victims of a capitalist system. Rather, because of Navajo cultural traditions of gift-giving and helping others, the artists slowly adapted some of the patterns and colors the traders requested into their own designs. By the 1890s, Hubbell and others commissioned paintings depicting particular weaving styles and encouraged Navajo weavers to copy them, reinforcing public perceptions of traditional Navajo weaving. Even the Navajos came to revere certain designs as “the weaving of the ancestors.” Enhanced by numerous illustrations, including eight color plates, this volume traces the intricate play of cultural and economic pressures and personal relationships between artists and traders that guided Navajo weavers to produce textiles that are today emblems of the Native American Southwest. Winner - Multi-cultural Subject, New Mexico Book Awards

Wide Ruins

Wide Ruins PDF Author: Sallie R. Wagner
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 170

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Book Description
This lively memoir describes trading post life from 1938 to 1950 and the many changes experienced by Navajos and all Americans during and after World War II.

Both Sides of the Bullpen

Both Sides of the Bullpen PDF Author: Robert S. McPherson
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 0806159391
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 460

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Book Description
Between 1880 and 1940, Navajo and Ute families and westward-trending Anglos met in the “bullpens” of southwestern trading posts to barter for material goods. As the products of the livestock economy of Navajo culture were exchanged for the merchandise of an industrialized nation, a wealth of cultural knowledge also changed hands. In Both Sides of the Bullpen, Robert S. McPherson reveals the ways that Navajo tradition fundamentally reshaped and defined trading practices in the Four Corners area of southeastern Utah and southwestern Colorado. Drawing on oral histories of Native peoples and traders collected over thirty years of research, McPherson explores these interactions from both perspectives, as wool, blankets, and silver crossed the counter in exchange for flour, coffee, and hardware. To succeed, traders had to meet the needs and expectations of their customers, often interpreted through Navajo cultural standards. From the organization of the post building to gift giving, health care and burial services, and a credit system tailored to the Navajo calendar, every feature of the trading post served trader and customer alike. Over time, these posts evolved from ad hoc business ventures or profitable cooperative stores into institutions with a clearly defined set of expectations that followed Navajo traditional practices. Traders spent their days evaluating craft work, learning the financial circumstances of each Native family, following economic trends in the wool and livestock industry back east, and avoiding conflict. In detail and depth, the many voices woven throughout Both Sides of the Bullpen restore an underappreciated era to the history of the American Southwest. They show us that for American Indians and white traders alike in the Four Corners region during the late 1800s and early 1900s, barter was as much a cultural expression as it was an economic necessity.

Tales from Wide Ruins

Tales from Wide Ruins PDF Author: Jean Cousins
Publisher: Texas Tech University Press
ISBN: 9780896723689
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 278

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Book Description
Recounts the experiences of two Indian traders during the 1930s and 1940s, describing the hardships endured by them and the Native Americans with whom they dealt.

Indian-made

Indian-made PDF Author: Erika Marie Bsumek
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description
"In works of silver and wool, the Navajos have established a unique brand of American craft. And when their artisans were integrated into the American economy during the late nineteenth century, they became part of a complex cultural and economic framework in which their handmade crafts conveyed meanings beyond simple adornment." "Bsumek unravels the layers of meaning that surround the branding of "Indian-made." When Navajo artisans produced their goods, collaborating traders, tourist industry personnel, and even ethnologists created a vision of Navajo culture that had little to do with Navajos themselves. And as Anglos consumed Navajo crafts, they also consumed the romantic notion of Navajos as "primitives" perpetuated by the marketplace. These processes of production and consumption reinforced each other, creating a symbiotic relationship and influencing both mutual Anglo-Navajo perceptions and the ways in which Navajos participated in the modern marketplace." "Ultimately, Bsumek shows that the sale of Indian-made goods cannot be explained solely through supply and demand. It must also reckon with the multiple images and narratives that grew up around the goods themselves, integrating consumer culture, tourism, and history to open new perspectives on our understanding of American Indian material culture."--BOOK JACKET.

C.N. Cotton and His Navajo Blankets

C.N. Cotton and His Navajo Blankets PDF Author: Lester L. Williams
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Gallup (N.M.)
Languages : en
Pages : 124

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Book Description
Tells of the Ohio-born trader C.N. Cotton, who went to Arizona and New Mexico to trade with the Indians in the late 19th century, eventually settling in Gallup, New Mexico, where his trading post played a leading role in promoting the sale of Navajo blankets. Includes facsimilies of three early catalogs of Navajo blankets and rugs.

Code Talker

Code Talker PDF Author: Joseph Bruchac
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101664800
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
"Readers who choose the book for the attraction of Navajo code talking and the heat of battle will come away with more than they ever expected to find."—Booklist, starred review Throughout World War II, in the conflict fought against Japan, Navajo code talkers were a crucial part of the U.S. effort, sending messages back and forth in an unbreakable code that used their native language. They braved some of the heaviest fighting of the war, and with their code, they saved countless American lives. Yet their story remained classified for more than twenty years. But now Joseph Bruchac brings their stories to life for young adults through the riveting fictional tale of Ned Begay, a sixteen-year-old Navajo boy who becomes a code talker. His grueling journey is eye-opening and inspiring. This deeply affecting novel honors all of those young men, like Ned, who dared to serve, and it honors the culture and language of the Navajo Indians. An ALA Best Book for Young Adults "Nonsensational and accurate, Bruchac's tale is quietly inspiring..."—School Library Journal