Behind the scenes at Hubbell's Trading Post

Navajo-Churro Sheep

Never skip national historic sites. They always deliver historic nuggets or some unexpected experience you would kick yourself for missing. 

I had to stop in Ganado and hit Hubbell’s Trading Post, a National Historic Site, even if I had no concept of what it would offer. I rushed through the southern overlooks of Canyon de Chelly to hit the trading post before it closed. Of course it became the surprise of the day – even though I never stepped foot into the actual trading post. But the grounds of the trading post are rich with history both Navajo and those who made a living trading with them.

Outside the visitor center, I encountered a few unpaid workers of the national historic site – Tabby and Thumbs. The two cats were mousers keeping the post clean of rodents. Thumbs was a black polydactyl cat, with the sixth toes on each of his front paws jutting out like thumbs. To no surprise, Tabby, had an intricate pattern of orange strips in different shades. 

I really intended to go into the actual trading post – it had operated continuously for more than 150 years – but the timing did not work. I have every intention of visiting again after everything else I experienced there. 

The trading post thrived because John Lorenzo Hubbell (who the Navajo called “Old Mexican” because his mother was Mexican, his father from Connecticut) treated the Navajo fairly. Their goods were exchanged for credit at the store.

After his descendants continued running the post and eventually deeded it to the National Park Service, it has continued to operate as a source of Navajo goods. The goodwill did not end with the Hubbells. Thanks to a generous ranger, a Navajo Native, time at the Hubbell Trading Post extended with an unexpected private tour. Hubbell learned to speak Navajo (a difficult language to learn, the ranger assured us) and earned the trust of the people whose native lands surrounded his trading post.

He invited me along with a few others to join him as he locked up the Hubbell house and several other structures. He brought us into the central hall of the Hubbell house,  where they greeted guests. The old timber creaked, but otherwise the house stayed silent. Elk and bison migrated across the Navajo territory, but the heads were gifts to the Hubbells. Navajo pots decorated the celling. At moments, the house still felt occupied. 

Summer hogan at Hubbell House

The walls ran thick with mementos from personal family portraits to animal heads to art depicting other famous people, namely Indian chiefs such as Geronimo, who family portrait artist E.A. Burbank sketched and painted in a personal setting in Oklahoma. The paintings and sketches Burbank did of Geronimo are believe to be the only ones for which Geronimo sat with the artist. 

When the ranger gave us a Navajo greeting, I understand none of what he said, but clearly heard the name “Burbank” in the mix – was a descendant of the portrait artist? He confirmed a different origin – Navajo adopted European last names, and E.A. Burbank had befriended his grandparents, so they took the surname. The Navajo have many engaging origin stories, even for their European names. 

Today this house receives few visitors, but still holds tremendous history. Theodore Roosevelt stayed in one of the guest rooms and it hosted other dignitaries during the Hubbell’s prime years. While John Lorenzo Hubbell had trading posts across the Southwest and Pacific Coast, he chose to live at the Ganado post. 

In one of the bedrooms, the ranger gave us another treat – he pulled back the barrier that restricts people from walking, and pointed to the walls. 

The trading post owns more than 100 of the 1,200 pencil sketches Burbank completed of famous Indian leaders of the late 19th century. On the wall I clearly saw Red Cloud and Sitting Bull, plus dozens more. 

At the rear of the property stood a pen of Navajo-Churro sheep, which produce the wool for Navajo blankets and textiles. Their coats grow fast enough that they can be shaved three times a year. Artisans turn the wool into items sold at the trading post.

The ranger let the cats into a door where they mewed, evidently where dinner awaited. They seemed unconcerned with the pen next to their room, where turkeys and chickens grazed, including a tom turkey fluffed out to full size.

 He pointed out the post barn, which was undergoing a renovation, before ushering us out a side gate, with the post locked up for the night. After numerous landmarks and sites in less than 12 hours, I found my mind a little overwhelmed by Hubbell’s Trading Post.

 I saw only a sliver of the site, but that adage out national historic sites turned true yet again. The combination of Navajo hospitality and unseen history proved too potent a pairing. 

Hungry cats ignore the captive turkey in their midst