Traders, Agents, and Weavers by Robert McPherson complements his Both Sides of the Bullpen (2017) in the investigation of the culture and economy of the trading post system on the Navajo reservation in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The current volume shifts the focus from the smaller posts in Utah and Colorado, which he focused on in Both Sides of the Bullpen, to an investigation of the area bordered by the San Juan River and the Chuska Mountains in northwestern New Mexico. That is the location of the Toadlena, Newcomb, and, especially, Two Grey Hills trading posts. Broadening his attention to the relationships among the posts, various Anglo and Navajo actors, and the nearby US Government Shiprock (Northern Navajo) Agency, McPherson highlights further aspects of the trading post dynamic.
The Two Grey Hills trading post is only slightly less known than the Hubbell trading post in Ganado,...
