Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site is a historic site on Highway 191, north of Chambers, with an exhibit center in Ganado, Arizona. It is considered a meeting ground of two cultures between the Navajo and the settlers who came to the area to trade.
History
In 1878, John Lorenzo Hubbell purchased this trading post, ten years after Navajos were allowed to return to the Ganado region from their U.S.-imposed exile in Bosque Redondo, Fort Sumner, New Mexico. This ended what is known in Navajo history as the "Long Walk of the Navajo."
It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1960.
Navajo people
When the Navajos returned from The Long Walk in 1868, they found their herds decimated, their fields destroyed. Their way of life was ripped apart and their life was forever changed. The Navajos were troubled by an economic depression in the late 19th century as a result of the Long Walk. Thus, trade became increasingly important.
Heavy sandstones from the area were quarried in 1883 to begin construction of this solid building along the southern banks of the Pueblo Colorado Wash. Life at Hubbell Trading Post centered around it. The idea of trading was not new to the Navajos. Native American tribes in the Southwest had traded amongst themselves for centuries. During the four years' internment at Bosque Redondo, Navajos were introduced to many new items (e.g., flour, sugar, coffee, baking powder, canned goods, tobacco, tools, cloth, etc.). When the Anglos came to trade with the Navajos, the difference was in the products exchanged, and in the changes brought about by these exchanges. Traders like Hubbell supplied these items.
Trade with men like Hubbell became increasingly important for the Navajos. The trader was in contact with the world outside the newly created reservation, a world which could supply the staples the Navajos needed to supplement their homegrown products. In exchange for the trader's goods the Navajos traded wool, sheep and, later, rugs, jewelry, baskets and pottery. It was years before cash was used between trader and Navajos.
Hubbell family members operated this trading post until it was sold to the National Park Service in 1967. The trading post is still active, operated by the non-profit Western National Parks Association, which maintains the trading traditions the Hubbell family established.
Today, Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site is still situated on the original homestead, which includes the trading post, family home, out buildings, land and a visitor center. Visitors can experience this historic trading post on the Navajo Nation, which includes weaving demonstrations; and the store still maintains a wooden floor and walls from the days of old. A set of initials carved on the gate of the privacy wall which separates the public spaces from the private stand for John Lorenzo Hubbell.
Hubbell's life
Hubbell's father was Anglo, his mother Spanish. He was raised in Pajarito Mesa, New Mexico, a small village just south of Albuquerque, New Mexico. He came to this area in 1876, less than ten years after the Long Walk. In 1878 he bought the small buildings comprising the compound from a trader named William Leonard, and started business. He was twenty-three years old, single and trying to make a living among the Navajos, a people he did not know very well. He had to find a niche in a new culture, a difficult language. He probably learned "trader Navajo" very quickly. John Lorenzo was trilingual. He spoke English, Spanish and Navajo.
Mr. Hubbell married a Spanish woman named Lina Rubi. They had two sons and two daughters. Additions to the family home to accommodate the growing family were finished in 1902. It started out as a plain adobe building which the Hubbell family gradually made into a comfortable, and in some ways, luxurious home. Paintings and artifacts and many large Navajo rugs still decorate the interior. Unlike other traders who left their families "back home" in the east, the entire Hubbell family spent most of the year in the village of Ganado. The Hubbells lived in the house until 1967.