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. Established on August 28, 1965, Hubbell Trading Post encompasses about 65 hectares (160 acres) and preserves the oldest continuously operated trading post on the Navajo Nation. From the late 1860s through the 1960s, the local trading post was the main financial and commercial hub for many Navajo people, functioning as a bank (where they could pawn silver and turquoise), a post office, and a store.

History

The history of the trading post begins in approximately 1874, when Anglo-European trader William Leonard established a trading post in the Ganado Valley. Using “squatter’s rights”, Juan Lorenzo Hubbell purchased the Leonard post and later filed for a homestead claim.

It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1960.

When the Navajos returned from The Long Walk in 1868, they found their herds decimated, their fields destroyed. A majority of Navajos have lived on the reservation since the Treaty of 1868. The treaty allowed surviving Navajos to return from the Bosque Redondo internment camp to a portion of their ancestral homeland, about one-fourth the size of the territory they inhabited before being displaced to Bosque Redondo. Executive orders and Congressional legislation gradually increased the size of the reservation to its current size of more than six million acres. 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. Since there were few towns in the region, trading posts, such as Hubbell Trading Post at Ganado, Arizona, and Goulding's Trading Post near Monument Valley, Arizona, became key places to sell weaving and silverwork during frontier times.

thumb|right|Interior of residential area which may be visited on free Park Service guided tour

thumb|right|Old baskets on the ceiling

thumb|right|Inside the active trading post showing rugs for sale

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.

thumb|Hubbell and a weaver in front of the post in the 1890s

Hubbell's life

Hubbell's father was Anglo, his mother Hispanic. He was raised in the Gutiérrez Hubbell House in Pajarito, 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. During the first half of the 20th century, Hubbell built an economic empire consisting of more than 20 trading posts that was able to influence the production and development of traditional designs that remain in use today.