Trade Token - Navajo = Indian Wells

Description

This is a 50-cent trade token from Indian Wells Trading near Winslow, Arizona.   The store was in a cluster of trading posts (5) within a 20-mile radius of one another.  Across the road was Bitahoochee Trading.  The area was prodigious for saddle blankets.  Each week the area stores could provide as many as 150 saddle blankets for our company.  I made regular trips in a station wagon and hauled as many as I could fit, including the outside luggage rack, and blankets rolled under my legs.
Saddle blankets could be woven relatively quickly and efficiently by weavers.
The sizes were always 30x30 or 30x60.
The designs were simple horizontal stripes with occasional corner patterns.
A weaver could make a saddle blanket in a few days as opposed to rugs that took considerably longer.
The prices were equally consistent.
For years we paid each for singles and for doubles.
The blankets were desirable because the wool absorbed sweat and they were durable.
Nowadays many saddle blankets are sold as old rugs.
The tell is size.
Trade token pricing is relative to availability.
Simply put – there are no more.
They quit using them by the early 50s after ceasing production in the 40s.
Thirty years ago, for a trade token was considered high because there was still an adequate supply.
Now, many of the tokens are not only in short supply or scarce and prices have at least quadrupled; higher on some.
So, how much is too much?
Availability was impacted a number of ways.
The most notable was Hogback Trading.
When fifth-generation Tom Wheeler was a boy, he found two wooden crates in the 50s with Hogback tokens.
Since they were essentially worthless at the time, Tom frequently took a bag of tokens to the top of the hogback and sailed them into the wind.
He also skipped them on the water of the San Juan River, as well as use for target practicing with a .22 rifle.
This store had many Ganado weavers in the area.
They produced high-quality rugs, especially large, red/black/white rugs.
It was one of two stores that consistently had large, quality rugs (5 x 7 to 12 x 18).
It was a higher volume store than the Leupp store.
The higher-dollar rugs account for the use of a large token amount.
Not many trading posts used tokens for more than .
In the days of tokens, most deals at a trading post were less than unless there was livestock involved.
Expensive rugs would also account.
Navajo trade tokens were a form of historically significant currency created for the Navajo by traders.  Until traders settled in the late 1800s, there was no credit among the Navajo because they had no money or access to commercial activity such as stores.  Barter was the sole means of economic exchange.  Generally, little attention was given to business in Navajo country because the area was remote with a relatively sparse population.  The Navajos lived in family units, not villages, so there were no concentrations of population.  The Navajos had no central governing structure and therefore did not represent a significant voting bloc to wield any constituent leverage  They were wards of the federal government.  Traders were allowed to extend credit in anticipation of seasonal business such as lambs and wool in the spring, a rug on the loom or other potential business activity, usually with livestock.  Traders were the first to recognize Navajos as a potential commercial market.  They had to be licensed by the government, initially through the agency at Ft. Defiance.  Ironically, the traders chose to move their families to the remote areas of the vast Navajo reservation (size of West Virginia) and live among people that spoke no English and had no money.  By early 1900 there were fewer than twenty trading posts for the Navajos.  By 1950 the number grew to two hundred fifty and the population from ~90,000 to ~300,000.  Logically, traders did not abuse the situation because they needed to co-exist with the Navajos for their survival.  Everyone, Navajos, and traders alike, was interdependent.  The traders bartered for livestock, wool, hides, jewelry, and rugs.  In turn the traders then bartered those goods with their wholesale supply houses for essential trade goods such as groceries, hardware, soft goods, etc.  Often time’s people came to a trading post to trade and did not fully consummate a trade.  Traders maintained separate counter pads for each family and recorded all transactions with ongoing balances.  Not understanding credit, many Navajos were leery of credit slips or ledger entries, if for no other reason than their inability to comprehend English; either spoken or written.  They had been introduced to trade tokens while in exile following their tragic trek to the Bosque Redondo in New Mexico.  The government provided tokens as currency for the commissary. Traders had to devise a means of acknowledging transactions, especially if a credit balance was involved.  They came up with trade tokens, which were already commonplace in American commerce and familiar to the Navajo people. If a credit balance existed at the end of a transaction, traders would issue trade tokens which could be redeemed the same as money.  A transaction could be recorded upon issuance of a token or redemption of a token.  Policies varied throughout the reservation.  The tokens were the same denomination as coins; however, they were made from tin or pot metal rather than silver.  The tokens could be redeemed at the trading post for merchandise at any time.  For the customer, the token represented physical proof of value.  For the trader, it was a means of securing customer confidence and loyalty.  Tokens were specific to a trading post.  There was no “Navajo” economy; rather trading post economy.  Each trading post had a micro economy of its own. If a trader had several posts, tokens could be provided with the trader’s name rather than specific trading post and thus interchangeable.  When a token was redeemed, the traders had various methods of invalidating the token, usually by punching a hole or stamping it.  Most common denominations were 1¢, 5¢, 10¢, 25¢, 50¢, and .  In early days, most transactions did not exceed or .  Trade tokens were in greatest circulation from the 1920s to the 1950s before being forbidden by the government.   The justification for the ban was economic imprisonment of Navajo people to specific trading posts that might restrict opportunities to do business elsewhere.  What was acceptable for business between the Navajos and the government in 1863 was no longer tolerable between the Navajos and traders  Trade tokens were the initial assault by the government to restrict credit transactions for the Navajos.  By the late 50s, tokens were no longer in circulation after having a significant role in the Navajo economy.  Some traders then formed regional groups to address the token issue.  These groups generally included families or close friends with approximate store locations.  The Burnhams had three stores: Chief Trading in Farmington (uncle), Bisti Trading (grandfather), and Burnham Trading (father of Bruce Burnham).  The Blair brothers (Elijah, Brad, and Raymond) had several stores including Kayenta Trading, Dinnebeto Trading and Round Rock and Rough Rock. Russell Foutz reportedly did the same with his stores in Shiprock and Teec Nos Pos.  The Kennedy brothers (Earl – Luchachukai Trading, Troy – Red Rock Trading, and Walter at Dennehotso Trading were a group.  It is likely that the Babbitt stores coalesced as well because they had more stores than any group or family.  Pinon Merc had coupon books for about five years.  They were issued as credit in amounts of and .  The groups initiated the use of trade coupons to replace the banned tokens.  The coupons were color coded to indicate amount: red and green and could be redeemed at any of the group stores.  The coupons lasted for a short time because the government closed in as they had done with tokens.  Pawn and trading would soon come under similar assault and elimination.  Eventually, by the 1970s, off-reservation transactions had no standing on the reservation.  That meant if an auto dealer in Gallup financed a truck for a Navajo family on the reservation, the DNA forced the tribal government to forbid any debt collection or repossession on the reservation.  The Navajo reservation economy became a cash economy and Navajos had severely restricted access to credit both on and off their reservation.  The economic reversal assisted in eliminating trading posts.  After one hundred years, there are again approximately twenty trading posts on the Navajo reservation.  Most have been replaced with cash-and-carry convenience store operations.  (Excerpt from my book,
Navajo Trading Posts.
)