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Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings
This national historic site preserves the Hubbell
Trading Post, still an active trading post after serving the Navajo
Indians for more than 90 years, as a living example of a reservation
trading post of yesterday. It typifies the role of such posts in Indian
life and their contributions to the acculturative process.
The reservation trading post was the final
manifestation of the Indian trade, a dominant factor in shaping the
history of the North American Continent. From the earliest times, when
the trade provided a motive for European colonization and influenced the
course of subsequent colonial expansion, the trader achieved an
importance among the Indian tribes unequaled by any other white man.
After the American Revolution, large fur companies, operating out of
isolated frontier outposts, gained the ascendancy over independent fur
traders and triumphed over the Government's "factory" system. The
companies dominated the trade for more than half a century until the
advance of settlement and the beginning of the Indian wars destroyed
their pattern of operations. Roving traders, often unscrupulous men
bartering arms, ammunition, and liquor for Indian furs and goods, came
to predominate. Gradually, between 1840 and 1890, as one tribe after
another capitulated to the Army and were confined on reservations, the
roving traders vanished.
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Hubbell Trading Post National
Historic Site. (National Park Service) |
Perhaps even more influential than his predecessors
was the reservation trader, who was licensed by the Government and set
up permanent posts on reservations amid newly conquered tribes. Not only
did he supply the Indians with the white man's goods, but he helped them
adapt their economy to reservation life, transmitted to them aspects of
white civilization and material culture, and aided them in adjusting to
their new way of life. In carrying out these activities, he also helped
the U.S. Government fulfill its objectives in setting up
reservationsto control and "civilize" the Indians.
The owner of Hubbell Trading Post for more than 50
years, John Lorenzo Hubbell, the "King of Northern Arizona," epitomized
the reservation trader. The son of a Connecticut Yankee who had married
into a New Mexico family of Spanish descent, Hubbell was born in
Pajarito, N. Mex., in 1853. In the early 1870's he traveled throughout
northern Arizona and southeastern Utah and became familiar with the
customs and language of the Navajos. He worked for a time as a clerk in
a Mormon trading post and in 1874 as an interpreter at the Navajo Agency
at Fort Defiance, Ariz. In 1878, 2 years after he began trading in
Arizona, he purchased William Leonard's trading post west of Ganado, the
site of the present post. A shrewd businessman and beyond question the
dean of the Navajo traders, Hubbell eventually built up a trading empire
that included 14 trading posts, a wholesale house in Winslow, Ariz., and
a stage and freight line. The hospitality of "Lorenzo the Magnificent,"
as Theodore Roosevelt dubbed him, was legendary throughout the Southwest
and nearly everyone of importance who passed through northeastern
Arizona visited him at his post. He was also active in county, State,
and national politics.
But the most important aspect of Hubbell's
personality and career was his friendship with the Navajo people. Coming
to the reservation at a critical time in the history of the Navajos,
when the suffering of the "Long Walk" and confinement at Fort Sumner, N.
Mex., was still fresh in their minds, more than any other man he helped
them adjust to reservation life. From the beginning they flocked to the
post, where he was not only their merchant, but was also their teacher
in understanding the ways of the white man and often their spokesman and
contact with the outside world. He translated and wrote letters for
them, arbitrated family quarrels, explained Government policy, and cared
for the sick. Once he dined 300 Navajos in his hacienda. One of his most
significant achievements was encouraging them to develop craftwork,
especially silversmithing and blanket and rug weaving, into profitable
industries that provided the basis for a sound economy. Although a
devout Roman Catholic, Hubbell was instrumental in persuading the
Presbyterian Church to establish in 1901 a mission and school in Ganado
and even took the missionaries into his home for a year while the
mission was being built.
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John Lorenzo Hubbell trading for
a Navajo blanket about 1905. (photo by Ben Wittick, Museum of New
Mexico) |
Hubbell's death in 1930 was mourned by the Navajos
probably more than that of any other white man they had known. He was
buried on Hubbell Hill, overlooking the trading post, next to his wife
and his closest Navajo Friend, Many Horses. Members of his family
continued to operate the post. Shortly after World War II, trading posts
on the Navajo Reservation began to decline as the customs of the
inhabitants modernized.
In the National Park System since 1965, Hubbell
Trading Post, surrounded by the Navajo Reservation, is still operated as
an active trading post by the Southwestern Monuments Association under
an agreement with the National Park Service. Barely changed since
Hubbell completed the present post about 1900 to replace an earlier,
smaller structure, it helps the visitor to visualize and understand the
pattern of Navajo trade, the type of man who conducted it, and the kind
of life he lived. The long, stone trading post, with its wareroom,
storeroom, office, and rugroom, appears much as it did in Hubbell's time
and resembles other Navajo trading posts. The original massive counters
still dominate the storeroom; the office furniture is more than half a
century old; and the rugroom contains antique firearms, Indian
craftwork, paintings, and a variety of rugs. Hubbell's rambling adobe
hacienda retains all its charm and portrays the manner in which
reservation traders lived. The barn and utility buildings, most of stone
construction, round out the picture of a trading post of yesteryear.
NHL Designation: 12/12/60
http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/soldier-brave/sitea4.htm
Last Updated: 19-Aug-2005
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