195109-DesertMagazin.. - Desert Magazine of the Southwest

Do- Ah Shon Goes to
the Trading Post
By SANDY HASSELL
Pen sketch by Charles Keetsie Shirley
Navajo Artist
Greedy strode into the
trading post her bulk seemed
to fill the place and there was
a slight backing away of all the Indians
in the store. Goldtooth the trader
tightened his lips and lowered his eyebrows.
He knew there was hard trading
ahead. The rug that she had
brought to trade was wrapped in a
flour sack and carelessly thrown over
her arm instead of being discreetly
tucked under her shawl like any other
Navajo woman would have carried it.
Her handclasps with all of her acquaintances
were short. No one wanted
to hold her hand long even if they
hadn't seen her for months.
The Indians themselves had given
her this name. None of them liked her
for she had many bad points. She
talked in a loud voice and nagged her
husband, Hosteen Funmaker, until he
would no longer help her when she
was trading a rug. She wasn't careful
with her skirts when she got on
and off a horse. Oftentimes she had
exposed her leg as far up as her knee.
She had insisted on Hosteen building
their last hogan too close to a waterhole
that many other Indians in that
district used. This caused lots of confusion.
When they brought their flocks
here to water every other day they
often got mixed with Old Greedy's.
Getting mixed wasn't so bad but when
they were separated Old Greedy always
wanted to claim a sheep that
didn't belong to her. Anybody could
tell she didn't own it, for all the other
sheep in her flock would try to fight it.
And what if someone should die in
that hogan, and then abandon it?
It certainly would be embarrassing
watering their sheep that close to a
Chinde hogan. And she had even been
known to slap her little girl when she
should have thrown water on her.
Yes, Old Greedy was do ah short.
After shaking hands a smoke was in
order. She could get this out of the
little box on the counter that had a
hole in the top about the size of a
dollar. With the aid of a teaspoon
that hung on a string she could fish
out the makings and a match. Gold-
tooth kept an eye on her for these
spoons had a habit of disappearing
everytime Old Greedy made a visit to
the store.
After her smoke was finished she
was ready to trade. All the Indians
gave way for her when she laid her
The Indians called her "Old Greedy.
rug on the counter. Before he unwrapped
it Goldtooth knew to a dollar
how much he was going to pay her
for it.
There was very little difference in
any rug she made. They were all
about the same size and weave, and
just over the borderline of being acceptable.
If they had been any poorer
Goldtooth wouldn't have bought
them. The neighbors thought the
worst part about her rugs was that
she never bothered to change the designs
in any of them.
Goldtooth placed the rug on the
scales. The Indians liked to see their
rugs weighed even if he didn't buy
them by the pound. If he had bought
this one by the pound he would have
deducted a pound for the sand and
clay, another one for the water—it
was very damp—-and a pound for the
grease in the wool, for she never
SEPTEMBER, 1951 21