LOT John D Kennedy  /  Navajo Trade Tokens  / 

18

Salina Springs Trading Post 10-cent Trade Token

Currency:USD Category:Western Americana / Collectibles - Tokens Start Price:10.00 USD Estimated At:NA
Salina Springs Trading Post 10-cent Trade Token
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Salina Springs Trading was established in 1913 by my grandfather, George E. Kennedy. He built the store and home by himself and later brought his family, including my six-week-old dad, to the new post. He methodically built a good business. In 1916 a terrible flu epidemic hit the reservation. My six-year-old uncle George nearly died. My grandparents decided that they needed to be closer to medical facilities, so, they sold the post and purchased Chinle Trading at the entrance to Canyon de Chelly. In the years since, the Salina store never changed, inside or out.
Kennedy came to Salina Springs after receiving a degree from Business School in Missouri and then managing a company store in the McGaffey Mountains, southeast of Gallup. There he learned about working with Navajo people as well as their language. The owner, Hans Neuman, also owned the Gallup Mercantile, which was a wholesale supply operation for trading posts. Neuman agreed to grubstake my grandad for a trading post, which became Salina Springs. At the time there were ~twenty trading posts on the reservation (size of West Virginia). As with the traders before him, there was no “manual” outlining the business of trading. Each trader had to learn on his own while working with people that did not speak or understand English and had no English-speaking neighbors. His Navajo customers and their families were his teachers.
A token is punched with a star indicated that it was redeemed. Traders had different means of invalidating tokens including a variety of dye stamps or punches.
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