Blair, Raymond

Raymond Blair was a trader to the Navajo Indians, 1938-1976. For a U.S. Marine stationed half the world away in the Philippines such a future, surely, was unimaginable. Besides, Raymond was from the Bluegrass country of Kentucky. And Navajos lived in the red sand country of the Four Corners. But, it was a young girl in the Navajo community of Toadlena, during the Depression Years of the early 1930's, who converted an improbability to reality.

Marilene was her name, thirteen years old and lonesome. Responding to a dare, she listed her name in Ranch Romances magazine, inviting pen pals to write. Amazingly, Raymond was one who saw it. And so did others, and letters began arriving in Toadlena. But those from the fellow over in the Philippines gradually became more special. Upon discharge from the service in Virginia, Raymond boarded a bus for Gallup, New Mexico, instead of heading home to Kentucky. This beginning, and details of their subsequent life together as traders to the Navajo stem from an interview given by Marilene and Raymond's brother, Elijah, to Karen Underhill and Bradford Cole of NAU's Cline Library.

The Gallup rendevous confirmed their feelings and culminated in their marriage on Christmas Day of 1937. Raymond first took a job at the local refinery, however, George Bloomfield, Marilene's father, influenced Raymond to try the trader's life. George was the trader at Toadlena, a Navajo trading post. This led to Raymond acquiring half interest in Roscoe McGee's post at Mancos Creek in southwestern Colorado. But, World War II interrupted this endeavor. And once more the Marines needed Raymond. The Marines also got many Navajos. They wanted to join the fight, but training them proved a problem for few understood English. The perfect solution appeared in Raymond since he not only spoke Navajo but also had earned status as a sharpshooter in prior service. Years later, Raymond proudly recalled that every one of his Navajo "pupils" earned a sharpshooter citation, too.

After the war, a new opportunity arose in 1948, and the Blairs acquired the trading post at Rock Point, north of Chinle, Arizona. Later, its long time employee, A.T.Witt, acquired half interest. Next year, the Blairs added the old post at Round Rock, built in 1890 and sorely in need of repair.

Everyday life in a trading post was characterized by Marilene: a crowded four rooms served as living quarters, and a central "bull pen" area usually filled with Navajos gossiping on the wooden benches arrayed near a large pot-bellied stove (with her often joining in since she also could converse in Navajo). Groceries and medicines lined walls behind counters, and all manner of cooking utensils, lanterns, harness and hardware hung from the ceiling. The accounting records (Series four and five of the Inventory) reveal merchandise in astonishing variety. "Wholesalers of Everything" was the motto of Blair's principal merchandise supplier, and that boast seems not far off the mark.

Principally, the Navajos bought lard, flour, sugar, coffee, and shoes. Yet the trader was more than a merchant. From them he bought wool, mohair, worn out ewes, goat hides, rugs and baskets. He was the source of cough medicine for a sick child and worm syrup for an ailing sheep. His pickup truck furnished transportation in times of emergency. He willingly advanced goods without payment until the Navajos could bring in their wool and lambs to market. When cash was needed, he furnished it against the pledge of personal property the Navajos might bring in to pawn. The trader was banker to the Navajo for they had no bank.

Raymond earned favor among the Navajos for his pawn dealing, because even afer declaring pawn "dead" (i.e., forfeited for nonpayment), he would not sell it unless his borrower no longer cared for it. And even after repayment, it often remained in the pawn room for it was far wiser to entrust it to an honest and vigilant trader than to gamble its safety in a remote hogan while the owners were away at a sing. Traders often let a borrower withdraw her jewelry so she might wear it to a ceremonial; afterward she returned it to hang again in the pawn room. But, in later years the Blairs ceased dealing in pawn because intervention by the Legal Aid Service saw injustice in it, and with tribal support, new and unacceptable restrictions were imposed. So, the pawn business was forced into off-reservation cities where traders there were quick to sell in order to retrieve investment in dead pawn. Thereby, many Navajos lost their valuables.

"The Thief" and other less than flattering names often grab one's attention in the columns of account ledgers. Marilene characterized Navajos as very good people who often looked after her needs when Raymond was away from the post. However, she declared, "if they could get away with stealing it was not a sin; but if caught, it was a sin." But most were trustworthy and honest, a trait, according to Marilene that the Blairs found less prevalent in the final trading years.

Marilene and Raymond raised two children, but a baby did not survive. Daughter Diane was born in 1940 and Michael in 1946. Following the death of A.T. Witt, his widow Lorraine succeeded to his trading post interest. Later, exchanges between partners resulted in the Blairs obtaining full ownership in Round Rock and one-third interest in Rock Point. And finally, in 1976, Marilene and Raymond ended their trading days by selling Round Rock to Celia and Clarence Wheeler, and their interest in Rock Point to Bob and Theda Cook. Raymond Blair was born March 6, 1914, and died December 6, 1990. Marilene, of Farmington, New Mexico, and Elijah, of Page, Arizona, both survive as of this date.

From the guide to the Raymond Blair Collection, 1903, 1948-1976., (Cline Library. Special Collections and Archives Department.)