From 1863 to 1868, Navajo people were prisoners of war in Bosque Redondo, Fort Sumner, 160 miles northwest from Albuquerque, NM. Right after our people came back from the Long Walk, trading posts started popping up all over the reservation. In its heyday, there were over 500 trading posts. Our reservation is an area the size of the state of West Virginia. My father Sam Teller started working at the White Rock trading post when he was 11 years old in 1930. The trading post was located near Crownpoint, NM and has since been demolished. He learned the trading business from J. B. Tanner, Shush Yaz, a Navajo nick name for old man Tanner meaning Little Bear. Presently, Tanner’s descendants still operate several Indian Art stores in Gallup, NM.

When my father married my mother, he went to work at Two Grey Hills trading post. The post is at the base of the Chuska mountain in Northwest New Mexico, sixty miles north of Gallup, NM and thirty-two miles south of Shiprock, NM. Traditionally, a husband will move to the wife’s homestead, and my father moved to our mother’s community in 1945. He worked at the post for over 35 years. My siblings and I grew up at the post. We all worked there, feeding the animals, cleaning stalls, cleaning the store, pumping gas, stocking goods, cutting fabric and anything else that needed to be done. Our trading post was a point of gathering for our customers. They'd come to meet up with friends, gossip, have lunch and finally shop. Women would bring their weavings to sell. The post was a dry goods, hardware, and food store. It was also a post office and the only place that had a phone. So, my Father had to be everything for everyone. He would read letters for customers and answer their response letters back. He would take phone calls and translate them for the customers who only spoke Navajo. The post was a starting point for anything that was happening in the community. My father took people to the hospital, took them to nearby towns, a couple of times, he even delivered babies and the community looked up to him as someone who helped. Those kinds of trading posts are long gone. Nowadays, the trading posts are more like convenience stores, where you buy snacks and rent movies.

Barbara Teller Ornelas

June 2020