ABOUT

KELLY KILGORE

Navajo Trading Post

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My parents (Margaret & Leonard Kilgore) were living in Sedona when they purchased a trading post on the Navajo reservation in Tuba City in the late 1950’s. The roads were still dirt and it was quite primitive.

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I spent a lot of time at my baby sitters in the Hopi village of Moenkopi and was fortunate to experience the Hopi ways. I started working in the store at the age of 10 at the candy counter and subsequently learned to speak a lot of Navajo. I remember a time when I first saw the Yei-bi-Chais (Navajo Spirits) encircling the store in their masks and loincloths. I was scared but Dad said “Don’t worry they come every year”. He proceeded to bring coffee, flour and meat out for them, as is their custom.