Records include correspondence, memos,
annual reports, newspaper clippings, trading licenses, and treaties recording business
dealings between traders and the Navajo Nation. Specific trading posts include the Hubbell
Trading Post in Gallup, New Mexico, and those located at Tonalea, Tuba City, and Keams
Canyon, Arizona.
Identification:
NAU.MS.351
Language:
Material in English.
Repository:
Cline Library. Special Collections and Archives
Northern Arizona University
Box 6022
Flagstaff, AZ 86011-6022
Phone: 928 523-5551
Fax: 928 523-3770
Email: special.collections@nau.edu
Historical Note
The Navajo reservation is the largest Indian reservation in the United States. The Navajo
began trading with the Spanish by the end of the 17th century. Trade was later established
with members of the Southern Ute, Hopi, Quechan, and Apache tribes. The first trader entered
Navajo territory a few years after the signing of the Navajo-U.S. treaty of 1868. Since the
late 19th century, trading posts have been a prominent feature of Navajo economic life.
Navajo people shaped the trade system to align with their way of life and culture.
The first trading post in and around the Navajo reservation appeared between 1870 and 1880.
Hubbell Trading Post, first known as the Ganado Trading Post, was built in 1878 in Ganado,
Arizona. The trading post was later bought and renamed by Lorenzo Hubbell. It still operates
as a trading post in the present day, protected as the Hubbell Trading Post National
Historic Site by the National Park Service. During the 1870s, Chaco Canyon Trading Post was
also in operation, after the establishment of several trading posts in the area following
the excavation of sites in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico by Richard Wetherill and others between
1896 and 1900. Around 1875, an Englishman named Thomas Varker Keam established a store,
Tusayan Trading Post, at the foot of the Hopi Mesas in a canyon now named Keams Canyon.
Men like Lorenzo Hubbell of Ganado Trading Post, Thomas Keam of Keams Canyon, the
Wetherills of Kayenta, and Dan DuBois were prominent traders of Southwest.
Records include correspondences, memos, annual reports, newspaper clippings, trading
licenses, and treaties recording business dealings between Indian traders and the Navajo
Nation. Specific trading posts include the John Hubbell post, and those located at Gallup
and Keams Canyon. The General Navajo (1924-1982) records provide information on the
following topics:Navajo way of living, Navajo Justice, Medicine Man, Wild Navajos of Four
Corners, Chief Hoskaninni, Navajo Gold, Discovery of Ancient tower of Haskhekizh, Powow of
the Navajo, Discovery of Betatakin, and Navajoland Pioneer.
Arrangement
SCA staff organized materials in the Navajo Traders collection into four series:
No restrictions on access and use of materials onsite in the Miriam Lemont Reading
Room.
Conditions Governing Use
It is the responsibility of the user to obtain permission to publish from the owner of the
copyright (the institution, the creator of the record, the author or his/her transferees,
heirs, legates, or literary executors). The user agrees to indemnify and hold harmless the
Arizona Board of Regents for Northern Arizona University, its officers, employees, and
agents from and against all claims made by any person asserting that he or she is an owner
of copyright.
[Title or brief description of item or file.] Navajo Traders collection, NAU.MS.351, Box [
], Folder [ ]. Northern Arizona University. Cline Library. Special Collections and Archives.
Flagstaff, Arizona.
Acquisition Information
The provenance of the Navajo Traders records is unknown as of 2025, though collection
materials may have been collected or copied by SCA staff in connection to the Traders: Voices from the Trading Post exhibit, oral
history project, and related activities.
Appraisal Information
SCA staff removed culturally sensitive information from the Navajo Traders collection in
spring 2025. This appraisal action aligns with and supports the Cline Library's commitment
to implementing the Protocols for Native American Archival Materials.
This file and its contents were removed from the Navajo Traders collection in March
2025 due to cultural sensitivity concerns. This appraisal action aligns with and
supports the Cline Library's commitment to implementing the Protocols for Native American Archival
Materials.
3
113
Richard Van Valkenburgh, Tom Keam - Friend of the Moqui, The Desert Magazine,
July, 1946.
3
114
Thomas Varker Keam: The Biography. 1868-1999
3
115
Interview with Tom Keam Jr., Rodger Davis, Interpreter, August 1, 1940.
3
116
Thomas Varker Keam, Clippings from San Diego Paper. 1868-1999
3
117
Thomas Varker Keam, Clippings from New Mexican(Santa Fe), 1871-1872
3
118
Thomas Varker Keam, Clippings from New Mexico Historical Review. 1868-1999
3
119
Thomas Varker Keam, Stewart Culin in American
Anthropologist,January, 1905.
3
120
Correspondence: Sherman to McCrary, September 9, 1878.
3
121
Thomas Varker Keam, Correpondence from F. W. Hodge to Will C. Barnes, June
15, 1932.
3
122
Correspondence: P.M. Hamer to Senator Carl Hayden, February 21, 1940.
3
123
Correspondence: From Thomas V. Keam, 1897.
3
124
Copy of Statement mailed by Burton to Commissioner on 2/28/01. 1868-1999
3
125
Circular: Moqui Indian Agency, Keams Canon, Arizona, September
29, 1914.
3
126
Correspondence: To The Commissioner of Indian Affairs from Department of the
Interior, United States Indian Service, Moqui Agency, March 14, 1913
Scope and Contents
Navajo blanket Industry.
3
127
Licence to Thomas Varker Keam, Department of the Interior, Office of Indian
Affairs, October 28, 1892.
3
128
Correspondence: To Indian Traders, Keams Canyon, Arizona, 1905.
3
129
Correspondence: To the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Hopi Training School,
Keam's Canyon, Arizona, August 30, 1900.
