Burnt Water Trading Post, Arizona

Encyclopedia Article

Article

Burnt Water, or Tó Díílidí in Navajo, is a sparsely populated area in Apache County, Arizona. This county has the most land designated to Native Reservations in the U.S. and includes the Navajo Nation Reservation, the Fort Apache Reservation, and the Zuni Reservation. A specific kind of Navajo woven rug has also been named after this place, which features bordered, geometric designs in pastel colors.

There was a trading post in this location until 1983. A trading post is an establishment where goods can be traded. It is also a social center where news and gossip are exchanged. Trading posts have been associated with American frontier culture since the seventeenth century. Over time, trading posts developed into a cultural institution at first funded and backed by empire, later by national interests, and most often by enterprising business men.

Photo Credit: 

 
"Begashebito Trading Post, 1923," photograph, New Mexico Centennial Project ( 1993_27_8). Farmington Museum.

Published Works: