Hubbell Home & Trading Post

When you walk into this home it's like you are in a treasure chest of paintings, weavings, and basketry.  Everywhere you look there's something that takes your breath away, but there's so much that it's hard to focus.  There are four bedrooms off this main room, and over each door is a fully beaded Native American saddlebag.  But the main attraction are the paintings and drawings of the artists that stayed here, like Dixon, Payne, Burbank, Lee.  Wow!



                                                                                        This is what you see when you first walk into the trading post, which they called the "bullpen".  I meant to ask why, but then some bright , shiny object would catch my eye and I would forget.  I did watch and saw some of the locals stop by here, but the vast majority of visitors were vacationers.                                                                                                                                                                  

This is a picture of the traders desk.  We spoke with Edison, the current trader, while Betsy shopped for something to remember the trip, and the conversation was a history lesson of the Navajo people.  If an older Navajo brought something in to sell they would carry the item in one bag, but the second bag would contain a gift of homemade bread or something else to eat.  Edison would go get drinks to share with the seller.  They would first eat, talk about friends or relatives in the sellers area, what was happening in that area, and then look at what the seller had brought to sell.  The same as Mr. Hubbell would have done.


This is just a small portion of the rugs & blankets in the weaving room.  I had the uncanny knack of
picking out the most expensive one's as my favorites. Story of my life --champagne taste on a beer budget.  One nice thing was that on the price tag would be the name of the weaver along with a picture of he or she.
                     

 

This is Edison, the trader.  Edison grew up on the reservation, and remembered as a young boy riding in a wagon pulled by horses to go get water from the well which was two miles away. Somehow he managed to go to college, and was a teacher away from the reservation.  But he is where he belongs now. Betsy selected a couple of items to remember her trip the day before we left and Edison ask us to stop in before we left the next day.  Early the next day we did stop in and said our goodbye's.  Edison explained that people had been coming to this place for decades to trade, or visit.  Some have stayed for years, and some only for minutes.  But everyone has left a bit of their life force,   He thanked Betsy for leaving a part of her creative energy here at Hubbell Trading Post.