The fifth decade, which I am approaching, is not good for business. The pressures are off, family raised, you ve become an integral part of the community with which you are trading. Few true Indian traders remain. With the advent of chain stores and easy accessibility of convenience stops, the need to trade for food and necessities is fast disappearing. Another major change is the pickup.
Payments are due monthly to a bank.
Filling the insatiable fuel tank calls for cash. The time of the traders is about gone. But as long as a few of the old ones remain, we will have a place here, says Burnham, referring to the non-English speaking Navajo whom he, like other traders, helps with personal business. The few traders who are left, like Ellis Tanner and Bruce Burnham, work hard to help the young Native Americans retain pride and place, remembering and perpetuating their culture and language. And the non-traditional traders, like Barry and Steve Simpson, who deal directly but in cash, help too, insuring that Indian Arts and crafts will always have a market, and their makers a source of income.