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Both Sides of the Bullpen - Navajo Trade and Posts (Hardcover)
Loot Price: R1,173
Discovery Miles 11 730
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Both Sides of the Bullpen - Navajo Trade and Posts (Hardcover)
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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.
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