A Good Trade: Three Generations of Life and Trading in and around Gallup, NM.

By John D Kennedy

A generational account told in the first person by a prominent Southwestern trading family. American Indians hold a fascination with people throughout the world. This family lived among the Navajo and Zuni Indian people for over one hundred years. The were prominent in protecting and contributing to the lives of many people during that time. Trading was a major part of their lives and this is a story of its impact.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jun 15, 2009
• ISBN: 9781483509358

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INTRODUCTION

WHAT IS SO special about Indian trading and why would anyone want to read a book about it?

Trading is special because of the American Indian people and the interest that others have in them. It revolves around their lives and cultures, which makes it a unique profession among special people.

Throughout United States history, American Indians have been a focal point. There is worldwide fascination with them and their cultures. Few people have the opportunity to live and work among them. Those who do are also special because of their appreciation for American Indian culture and, as in earlier times, their desire to be among them in remote areas of the southwest. This is a story of three such men and their lives through three generations of the Kennedy family from the Gallup, New Mexico area.

George E. Kennedy began working with Navajo people in 1899 and by 1913 he had built his own trading post eighty-five miles northwest of Gallup, New Mexico, on the Navajo reservation. His first generation recounts their resolve to build a life among people who spoke no English and had no money. When Granddad went to the Navajo country in 1913, there were about thirty Indian traders in an area the size of West Virginia. They lived among 75,000 Navajo people, many of whom had been removed from their homeland in 1865 because of a government relocation project known as the Long Walk of the Navajo, the greatest tragedy in their history.

At the time of their subsequent return to their homeland in 1868, the Navajo population had dwindled to fewer than 30,000. Massive sheep herds, once estimated in excess of one million head, were decimated. With miserly allotments of two sheep and/or goats per person, the Navajos returned and began to tenaciously rebuild their lives and their herds. They had little or no assistance from the federal government if for no other reason than the Civil War. Additionally, they had no recognized tribal leader such as a chief. They were a tribe of clans and bands. To that point in Navajo history, as with most American Indian tribes, the federal government had dictated the Navajos’ lot in life.

Forty-five years later, my grandparents moved to Navajo country. The Navajos had no means of support beyond what their meager herds and limited crafts provided. Business was conducted by barter (trading) as the primary means of survival. That scenario set the course for our family tradition in trading. Over the next two generations, trading thrived in our family even as economics and markets changed with the expansion of arts and crafts and the piñon nut business.

Our story began to develop in 1964 when my grandmother, Mary Jeanette Kennedy, walked into my parents’ kitchen with a stack of handwritten tablets and said, Here is my book. Her only research sources were her memories and family photographs.¹

My father, John W. Kennedy, is the second generation. He grew up on the Navajo reservation until moving to Gallup and later to Zuni Pueblo, New Mexico to trade with the Zuni Indians. I prompted Dad to join me in telling our family history. The majority of his input came in 2007, his ninety-fifth year. He vividly recalled times and events in his life in which he witnessed revolutionary changes in not only the trading business but also the world. In 2013 at the time of the second printing of this book he is 101 years old and my mom is 93 years old.

I, John D. Kennedy, the third generation, listened to, observed, compiled, and edited the stories of all three generations. My early years were spent in Zuni. When we moved from Zuni to Gallup, I began working with Dad in his trading operation at the age of nine years. I learned trading while standing on a milk crate behind a counter. Within a few years I had been over every road on the Navajo reservation and spent many more years regularly traveling those roads.

Gallup, New Mexico is at or near our trading activities. It is a town of 20,000 in northwestern New Mexico on I-40 (formerly Route 66) and the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad. It is located twenty-two miles from the Arizona line, twenty-two miles north of the Zuni Reservation, and fifteen miles from the Navajo Reservation with a trade territory that includes 250,000 people-Indians, miners, ranchers, and more in a 100-mile radius. It is known as the Indian capital because of its proximity to Indian people and their desire to trade in Gallup. They buy their supplies, sell and trade their arts and crafts-rugs, jewelry, baskets, kachinas, and other crafts. Gallup plays a pivotal role in the trading history of the Southwest and the economy of northwestern New Mexico.

There were twelve Indian trading companies in Gallup in the late ’60s. Everyone who got into the Indian jewelry business in the 1970s claimed to be an Indian Trader. By 1980, Gallup had over four hundred traders.

Many Indian ceremonies were an important part of our lives and our connection with Navajo and Pueblo people. Collectively we have had opportunities and privileges to attend hundreds of religious and social events. They were not spectacles to us because we understood and respected their significance. Many are related in this book to satisfy questions we have heard from people genuinely interested in American Indian culture, but limited to activities that were open to the general public. Any narrative of these events is from our perspective and knowledge and errors or omissions in interpretation are mine.

We refer to Native Americans as Indians. That may be politically incorrect, but it reflects our times and the terminology used by virtually all of our Indian friends. I’m not sure who deemed the term Native American as politically correct. It began to immerge with Indian activists in the ’70s. I was never conscious of such a demand by Indian acquaintances and intend no disrespect. Likewise we refer to craftspeople as craftsmen. The term is meant to include both men and women.

We spent years dealing with Indian craftsmen and working to protect and enhance their livelihoods.

There are many me-isms in this book when speaking about events including the first person, past, and present tense. There is generational repetition and perspective of some events. The chapters are topical and vary as our trading and business history evolved from horses and wagons to airplanes and computers.

This is a story of who we were and who we are, as we spanned the greatest years of trading in the history of the southwestern United States.

¹ Kennedy, Mary Jeanette (1965) Tales of a Trader’s Wife Albuquerque, NM: Valiant Press

THE FIRST GENERATION

TALES OF A TRADER’S WIFE

MARY JEANETTE KENNEDY

1888-1978

WE BEGAN A new way of life as the sun came up on July 4, 1913. Two freight wagons pulled by four-horse teams carried our packed belongings and furnishings. They had departed two days earlier in anticipation of arriving about the same time as us, since their trip was more tedious. Prior to these two wagons, others had gone with building supplies and inventory for our new trading post. We prepared to leave by buckboard wagon after spending two nights in a stuffy hotel, the best the small western town of Gallup, New Mexico had to offer. In addition to me, was my husband George, son George age 2, son John age nine months, and my fifteen-year-old sister Minnie Lee Eidson. She came from Arkansas to join us.

I arrived in New Mexico alone in 1909 from Brooklyn, Arkansas, near Jonesboro after having lost both parents and two brothers. Separate foster parents raised my sister Minnie Lee, my brother Bert, and me.

George E. Kennedy came west ten years earlier from his family’s homestead in Brookfield, Missouri. His grandfather settled Kentucky with Daniel Boone, according to family history, and then settled in north central Missouri. George graduated from a small college and moved to Albuquerque, where he found a job. He was soon hired by the McGaffey Lumber Company in the Zuni Mountains east of Gallup. He managed the company store at Guam. We lived nearby at Sawyer.

George E. Kennedy-center: Guam, New Mexico 1907

The store had many Indian customers. George liked dealing with them.

After several years, he wanted to become a trader in the Navajo country and obtained financial backing from Hans Neuman, owner of the Gallup Mercantile Company, known in the territory as the Merc. The Merc was the primary wholesale supplier to trading posts in the New Mexico territory and Navajo country.

George spent several weeks scouting the Navajo reservation in search of a suitable site for a trading post, aided by a Navajo guide. He chose Salina Springs, Arizona, our destination nearly one hundred miles northwest of Gallup. Its name comes from a spring in the sandstone bluffs.

George returned soon to Salina Springs with a carpenter and several freight wagons of supplies and inventory to begin building a trading post, our home, and preparing both for operation. He first built a warehouse and was soon trading out of it, as he worked on the other buildings with the carpenter.

Departing Gallup, we were eager to reach St. Michaels, Arizona, in time for a noon meal 25 miles northwest. We planned lunch with Mr. and Mrs. Sam Day Sr. who were pioneer traders in the Navajo country. On our arrival, they cordially welcomed us and served a delicious meal. We could not tarry with a steep mountain climb ahead of us, needing to reach Cross Canyon Trading Post approximately 20 miles westward before dark.

Cross Canyon Trading Post 1913

Following our night at Cross Canyon, we arrived at Ganado, Arizona about midmorning. There, for the first time we had the pleasure of meeting our new neighbors at Hubbell Trading Post, J. L. Hubbell and his family. He was pleased with our decision to locate on the reservation 35 miles northwest of his trading post. He welcomed us to the Indian trading business. He was one of our first visitors. We saw him whenever we traveled to Gallup.

Departing Ganado, we descended from the piñon trees to the open country and stopped for lunch at one of the last trees in sight. We ate cheese, crackers and sardines. They became family staples on many reservation trips over the years.

Our trip through the barren country after Ganado made the last leg seem quite long. There was not much sagebrush or other shrubbery. The way was dry and dusty, as the summer rains had not yet started. Whirlwinds came up around us. We went through deep sand many times. In the distance was our destination—the Black Mountain range. George pointed out the distant bluffs where our new home would be.

We traveled through one of the most sparsely populated sections of the Navajo reservation. Except for several Navajo men on horseback and some children herding sheep, we encountered nobody else.

We enjoyed the beautiful sunset. Just as darkness was falling, we made a sharp turn into a sandy draw between the two peaks we had seen from the distance. Once again, we saw trees, piñon, and cedar. Soon we arrived at our new home.

In front of the trading post and behind the house were beautiful sandstone bluffs, several hundred feet high and different colors. Atop them were evergreen trees. There was a collection of seven rock formations in front of the house. With some imagination, Minnie Lee christened them the Seven Sisters since they resembled Navajo women with full skirts. Fifty feet north of the house was an overlook into a beautiful valley surrounded by mountains. Whatever the future would hold for us, I could see that my husband had chosen a beautiful spot.

Seven Sisters Rock Formations

Our house, which joined the rear of the trading post, was not yet complete. Since the weather was good, we stayed in the structure at night. One of our first jobs in our new home was to unload our furnishings and household items. We had loaded very carefully and included bedding and rugs around our furniture for protection. Unknown to us, the drivers decided to shift the loads after they left Gallup. My heart sank when they lifted out my first living room chair in pieces. My dresser mirror, packed in a small feather bed, was shattered.

Our first night in Salina Springs was comfortable despite the meager accommodations. We were so tired from our trip that we slept fitfully until sunrise the next morning. My sister slept in a room facing the east and made a strained call to my husband during the night. He investigated and found a Navajo man standing at the foot of her bed. As was their custom, he had walked in without knocking and was standing and smiling in a very friendly manner. This was Minnie Lee’s introduction to the Navajo country. It was the first of many humorous and frightening incidents for us during the years we were traders with the Navajo people.

Salina Springs was an agreeable trading place for the Navajo people as they soon came by horseback, wagon, and foot from all directions for their supplies. Since my husband had learned to speak Navajo while with the McGaffey Company, he was readily accepted and easily conversed with the people.

The store was not yet completed. We began our trading business anyway. While the men built the store, Minnie Lee and I helped with the customers. Soon we too began to pick up the Navajo language. Prior to the 1950s, Navajo was basically unwritten in a format available to the general public. Few traders picked up this very difficult language either quickly or proficiently. The only way to pick up this very difficult language was to work with it. As our life progressed in the Navajo country, our family became proficient in the language.

Soon after our arrival, the summer rains began. Wild flowers sprung up everywhere and the bright colors added beauty to the landscape.

Each morning the rising sun rose onto the bluffs, and then set behind them in the late afternoon. Each day was beautiful. In the evenings, we strolled through the hills and listened to the Navajo men as they sang their riding songs on their way home from the trading post.

For the first time in our lives, we knew the importance of water. The spring in the bluffs was our water supply. It seeped into a sandy gully about a quarter of a mile below our home. Since this water supply was important to everyone, we did not locate our home closer. We had to carry empty pails down a steep trail to reach the water. Full pails carried up the trail were always heavy, especially on washday. Anticipation of snakes always made the trip interesting. We melted snow in the winter for washing water and saved rainwater in the summer.

People north of Salina Springs had to traverse a steep trail up the mountainside to reach both the water supply and the trading post. George met with them and then decided to assist with building a road up the mountainside. The people supplied their horses and workers. Hosteen Tsélani, the name given George by the people, provided shovels, food for the workers, and feed for the horses. After several weeks, the road was completed. It is one of the few roads in that vast area that was built without county, state, or federal funds. It is still in use today. Hosteen is the Navajo word for mister. Tsélani (say-lahni) is the Navajo word for Salina and means many rocks. Tsé is the Navajo word for rock and lahni means many.

Our trading post was just that. In the early days, we conducted all of our business by trading because there was no money on the reservation. The Indian people would bring wool, baskets, livestock, rugs, sheep pelts, goatskins, corn, or whatever they possessed and wished to trade with us. We offered canned food, hardware, tack, livestock supplies, soft goods, medicine, and more. We were a one-stop business for almost all of life’s basic necessities. Anything we did not have we could order from the Gallup Mercantile. It would arrive in due time, which meant many weeks.

We stocked basic food items. The canned food section had peaches, pears, tomatoes, corned beef, sardines, etc. The only fresh produce we had were oranges, apples, potatoes, onions, cantaloupe, and watermelon. One of our most important items was flour. Navajo women also needed baking soda, lard and salt because fry bread was and remains a very popular Navajo food. They used a twenty-five-pound sack of flour; a ten-ounce can of baking powder and plenty of lard for fry bread.

We had a case for stick candy and Cracker Jacks. Coffee was also important. We received bottled soda pop in barrels of 200+ bottles. The most popular flavor was strawberry cream soda, "toh-le-chee" (red water).

The dry goods section of the trading post had assorted bolts of gingham and velvet for skirts and blouses. A traditional skirt required about twelve yards of gingham and it was customary to wear several skirts at the same time. Blouses required about two and a half yards. Most had silver buttons on the collar and sleeves. That made needles and thread important trade goods as well. The men generally wore khaki or denim and boots or moccasins. The hardware section included a variety of nails for fencing, construction, and horseshoes. Dutch ovens were popular as were shovels, axes, picks, hoes, hinges, buckets and locks.

There was no established markup system for our goods. Prices were based upon what George thought the people could afford. Certain things like flour and coffee were always low-priced.

As we traded, people built accounts with us. The headmen of large families with lots of livestock had charge accounts. Sometimes they would have a credit. Usually, they owed us. The long credit season was from November through June. In June, the men paid their accounts with wool. The headman and his wife had most of the wool. They gave small lots to the herders and some siblings so that everyone had something to pay on their account. The wool seldom cleared their accounts, but the understanding was that they clear all accounts in the fall with livestock. So often, the credit cycle was a full year. Some of the larger trading operations like Hubbell, Fort Defiance Trading and others would issue trade tokens in lieu of credit and accept them like money.

An older Navajo man took a fancy to our two-year-old, George Jr., and would take him for strolls in the area. One day they quickly returned after seeing a rattlesnake. Navajo belief prevented killing it, so he came back to the trading post for help. After we killed the snake, Minnie Lee and George Jr. went on a stroll. They too encountered a coiled rattlesnake on the trail. Forewarning that there were many snakes in the area was proving true. Occasionally some of the livestock would come in with badly swollen legs from snakebites, but the snakes never bit any of us.

Once a week a Navajo rider would go the twenty miles to Chinle and back for our mail. Like a true mail carrier, he always made the trip. We eagerly awaited and appreciated a week’s accumulation of mail.

It was law in those days for reservation trading posts to close on Sunday. Often it was easier to lock the trading post and leave our home on Sunday rather than spend the day explaining the closure policy to people. Sunday had no significance to the Navajo people and it took some time for acceptance of Sunday closing. It was difficult for the people to figure out days of the week. Each day was the same to them as they tended to relate time in seasonal cycles. They had no calendars, radios, etc. with which to account for time. When it was time to go to the post they went. Eventually they came to associate our day of closing as Domingo from the Spanish word for Sunday and then each successive day was named from Domingo such as Domingo Escanda for Tuesday.

One Sunday morning George decided to ride a few miles south to an area where people had gathered for horse races. Horseracing was a great pastime with the Navajo people. They would choose a site accessible by wagon with space for racing and people would congregate for a day of pleasure. Shortly after George left, a man rode in from the north to do some trading. At that time, my Navajo was very limited and I somehow came up with Poco tiempo, Bilagaana, Come, words in three languages. Somehow, he understood, mounted his horse and rode away. Bilagaana is the Navajo word for white man. Another morning I was in the house bathing John in a tub of water by the kitchen fire. George had left the trading post for a while. I suddenly felt the presence of someone and turned to see a young man in the room. He was a retarded teenager who had been to the trading post several times with his family. I became frightened as he approached me and unsure what to do. At that moment, another young man, carrying water from the spring for me entered the house. He was able to deal with the other fellow and soon had him on his way. However, I remained shaky until George came home.

Our first summer in the Black Mountains passed swiftly for us. Trade steadily increased, which kept George busy. Minnie Lee and I had plenty to do with the boys, house chores and helping in the trading post. However, we always made time in the evening for strolling, horseback riding, reading and music. Soon Indian summer arrived and the people began bringing their corn to the store for trade. Some also had beans and squash and we were happy to have the addition to our diet. Since we had not been away from the trading post since our arrival and only the freight wagons brought us supplies we seldom had any vegetables except potatoes and onions sent to us. Canned vegetables, not as tasty as today, were our source of vegetables.

Our lifeline was freight wagons that operated between May and October each year. Winter conditions with snow and mud rendered them useless through winter and spring. The wagons worked both ways, leaving the trading post with goods such as pelts, hides, wool, and rugs for credit against post accounts at the wholesale houses and returning with inventory and supplies for the trading post. A round trip from Salina Springs to Gallup would take thirteen days including three days for loading, unloading and resting the team in Gallup. Because of weight, the return trip took an extra day.

In October 1913, our last wagon for the year left Salina Springs for Gallup and did not return for 35 days. The return to Salina Springs in snowy and muddy conditions required twenty-eight days. By the time the wagon arrived, our driver had consumed part of the load for survival.

I cannot imagine how the Navajo people in our area survived winters before George opened the trading post.

Salina Springs Trading Post freight wagon 1913

Our carpenter finished his work in the fall and was ready to return to Gallup. Since he also helped in the trading post, we were also losing a clerk. We decided that my fourteen year-old brother Bert would come from Arkansas and help us for a year. Minnie Lee offered to teach him so that he would not fall behind in his schoolwork.

Like all young boys at that age and time, Bert was longing to go west. After hearing tales of the Indian country, he was anxious to come. We were concerned about his leaving school and his peers for an isolated life on the Navajo reservation.

The carpenter left in our buckboard with a Navajo driver who returned several days later with Bert. He was delighted with the country and determined that he would learn to speak Navajo. He quickly learned the language working in the trading post and made friends easily. Soon he organized two shinny teams, which was easy since the only equipment required was sticks and stones; and the game was similar to hockey. It was fun to hear them at play, laughing and shouting sometimes in English and sometimes in Navajo.

Soon it was time for the fall harvest songs and Navajo winter ceremonies including the Yei-Bei-Chei (Yea-Bee-Chi), which lasted through nine days and nights. It was enchanting to sit in the evening and listen to the faraway chants.

Fall was also time for trading lambs and calves. It was part of the isolated economy of reservation trading posts and relatively secure in that most families had been in the area for many years or generations and had successfully rebuilt their herds after returning from the Long Walk to Bosque Redondo in New Mexico. Rug weaving was also an important trading activity.

When we got enough lambs, buyers would come to the trading post and buy them or we would herd them to a gathering point at the railroad in Gallup, depending upon the size of the herd. This was usually in November. This was also the time that the Gallup Mercantile expected all traders to clear their accounts.

The Gallup Mercantile provided all goods on credit. We paid these accounts with trade goods. We cleared our account in the fall with livestock. The credit cycle would begin anew in winter and extend at least six months.

Thanksgiving came and went with good weather. However, in our minds we were uncertain of the coming winter weather and our safety concerns in event of severe weather.

Our relationship with the Navajo people was very good and accounted for steady growth in our business. However, there was one band (extended family) of people in the area led by Left Hand Many Goats. They were not happy with our presence and often expressed their dissatisfaction with us because they considered us intruders into their territory. Not only were they the leading family in our trade area, they were generally large people and very intimidating to others. One day they sent word to George that they were going to kill him and his family. George calmly sent word back that this day was as good as any for them to kill him so invited them to come to the trading post and do so.

Left Hand Many Goats

Left Hand Many Goats did not come. While George remained calm about the matter, I was apprehensive about our safety and that of our two young sons. Would they come? When would they come? In time, George developed a good relationship with the band and they became good friends and customers.

Bert insisted upon carrying water and going to Chinle for the mail. I was concerned about sending my young brother off on horseback in not only unfamiliar territory, but Left Hand Many Goats’ territory as well.

In Chinle Bert met another young boy who also carried mail for his family, which was thirty-five miles north of Chinle. They planned their mail days and became good friends and the Left Hand Many Goats were no longer a threat to us.

In October, my teeth had been hurting me; it seemed a good idea to get to a dentist, and have my teeth put in shape for the winter months ahead. We decided that my brother and I should go to Gallup while George and Minnie Lee took care of the boys and the trading post.

Bert and I left early one morning in hopes of reaching Cross Canyon Trading Post by nightfall. Neither of us had been back over the way to Gallup since our one and only trip out to Salina Springs. George assured us we would have no problems finding our way, but failed to mention all the roads that led off to hogans in the foothills. We were traveling east of the Left Hand Many Goats camps yet all roads seemed to turn back into the hills. However, we knew we had to travel in a southeasterly direction and worked to maintain our direction. We stopped for lunch under the same tree that we had when we first came to this part of the country. The horses fed from grain bags but there was no water for them until we would reach Hubbell’s Trading Post.

While at Hubbells we loaded water barrels for Cross Canyon. Since the Cross Canyon trading post was in the mountains, they had no water supply and relied upon water hauled from Ganado. We reached Cross Canyon by nightfall and corralled the horses for the night.

The next morning we were up early and ready to go. While breakfast was being prepared, Bert went to the corral to harness the horses. He ran back to the house to say that one of the horses was missing. We were concerned that it had broken out and was going back to Salina Springs.

The trader at Cross Canyon had no horses, so Bert took the other horse with no saddle and a rope for a bridle and began searching for the missing horse. Meanwhile I started for Gallup with the mail carrier. Later in the day, a man who had found the horse returned it to Cross Canyon. He claimed a reward and Bert was soon on his way to Gallup and arrived shortly after dark.

So far, Bert had had remarkable experiences for a fourteen year-old boy and he enjoyed writing to his friends in Arkansas. He was keeping up with his schoolwork, which he usually completed with Minnie Lee early in the morning before customers came to the trading post.

Soon some of the Navajo people learned of Minnie Lee teaching Bert and asked if she would teach them as well. She began doing so by taking copies of the Saturday Evening Post and other illustrated magazines and teaching them words to go with pictures. At the same time, the people taught her the Navajo words to match the pictures. The Navajo people are very clever at giving their new friends names, which they especially like so it was not long before they named Minnie Lee the happy woman or Asa’ah Bahozhon".

Our first winter in the Black Mountains was very mild and since we lived in a protected location against the bluffs we were able to be outdoors frequently. When the snow came, we carefully caught all the water we could from the rooftops to save for washing.

Salina Springs Trading Post 1913

As Christmas approached, we were consulting mail order catalogues frequently. The Gallup Mercantile sent out a box of toys assuming we had a girl in the family because they included a doll. We placed the doll under the tree for decoration and Christmas morning both boys ran for the doll.

Our Navajo friends had also been making plans for "Kishmus". George had invited them to come for a midday meal. Early Christmas morning he butchered a cow and put the meat in tubs of water over several fires. After several hours of slow cooking, the meat was tender and tasty with broth for gravy. Big cans of coffee were also prepared over the fires and soon the smell of stew, coffee and bread was in the air.

By noon, people had arrived by horseback, covered wagons and buckboards and prepared a day camp around the fires. The