The Legend of Don Lorenzo John Lorenzo Hubbell and the Sense of Place in Navajo Country by Erica Cottam A Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy Approved March 2014 by the Graduate Supervisory Committee: Stephen Pyne, Chair Katherine Osburn Christine Szuter ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY May 2014 ABSTRACT This dissertation is a cultural history of the frontier stories surrounding an Arizona politician and Indian trader, John Lorenzo Hubbell. From 1878 to 1930, Hubbell operated a trading post in Ganado, Arizona—what is today Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site. During that time, he played host to hundreds of visitors who trekked into Navajo country in search of scientific knowledge and artistic inspiration as the nation struggled to come to terms with industrialization, immigration, and other modern upheavals. Hubbell became an important mediator between the Native Americans and the Anglos who came to study them, a facilitator of the creation of the Southwestern myth. He lavished hospitality upon some of the Southwest’s principle myth-makers, regaling them with stories of his younger days in the Southwest, which his guests remembered and shared face-to-face and in print, from novels to booster literature. By applying place theory to Hubbell’s stories, and by placing them in the context of the history of tourism in the Southwest, I explore the relationship between those stories, the visitors who heard and retold them, and the process of place- and myth-making in the Southwest. I argue that the stories operated on two levels. First, they became a kind of folklore for Hubbell’s visitors, a cycle of stories that expressed their ties to and understanding of the Navajo landscape and bound them together as a group, despite the fact that they must inevitably leave Navajo country. Second, the stories fit into the broader myth- and image-making processes that transformed the Southwest into a distinctive region in the imaginations of Americans. Based on a close reading of the stories and supporting archival research, I analyze four facets of the Hubbell legend: the courteous Spanish host; the savior of Native American arts and crafts; the fearless conqueror and selfless benefactor of the Navajos; and the i thoroughly Western lawman. Each incarnation of the Hubbell legend spoke to travelers’ relationships with Navajo country and the Southwest in different ways. I argue, however, that after Hubbell’s death, the connection between his stories and travelers’ sense of place weakened dramatically. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Five years ago, I had never heard of Hubbell Trading Post. When I received the assignment to write a Historic Resource Study (HRS) of the site for the National Park Service as part of my graduate assistantship, I pulled up a map on the Internet to see where it was. I had to zoom out a hundred miles before I could orient myself to the place where my mind would end up dwelling for the next several years as I wrote first the HRS and then this dissertation. I have come a long way since then, and have been helped every step of the way by kindhearted and generous people without whom this dissertation would not have been possible. First, I wish to sincerely thank my dissertation committee for their professional expertise and personal encouragement through the usual and the unusual challenges alike. Dr. Stephen Pyne provided refreshing candor from the beginning and kindly stepped up to serve as my chair at the end, a role he has filled with incredible grace and vital decisiveness. Dr. Christine Szuter’s professional advice and editor’s eye were invaluable. Dr. Katherine Osburn cheerfully agreed to join my committee on very short notice, bringing her enthusiasm and encouragement with her. Dr. Jannelle Warren-Findley, who served as my chair until the vicissitudes of life intervened, always demonstrated confidence in me. I also wish to thank Nancy Dallett, who was my unofficial mentor throughout my entire graduate experience, and Dr. Noel Stowe, whose wisdom I enjoyed for only a short time, but who showed me kindness at a crucial moment. To the many scholars who paved the way before me in studying Hubbell Trading Post, I give my thanks. The archivists and curators in libraries and collections in Arizona, New Mexico, and California, who assisted me in my research also have my gratitude, especially Ed Chamberlin at Hubbell Trading Post and the archivists at the University of iii Arizona Library Special Collections. Bob Spude of the National Park Service and his successor, Sam Tamburro, both provided helpful feedback and assistance with the HRS, for which I thank them. I am also indebted to the Max Millett Family Travel Grant and the History Doctoral Student Block Grant Summer Research Fellowship for providing the funds for my archival research. My parents have my most heartfelt thanks for supporting me through this process. Their encouragement, sympathy, and faith in me were bottomless. I never could have done this without you, Mom and Dad, and I dedicate this to you. My brother, Bronson, joked and cheered and fixed that maddening vibration in my car that was somehow preventing me from getting this done. Thanks, B. A. My extended family also encouraged me at every opportunity, which I appreciate deeply. I wish to especially thank my aunties and my grandparents. I wish you were here to see this, Grandpa. My heart is filled with thankfulness to my ancestors who sacrificed and dreamed and showed me the meaning of hard work. The same gratitude goes to my friends, who provided encouragement, comfort, chocolate, and distractions at all the right times. I will never forget how good you all were to me during the rough patches. Thank you, too, for keeping me grounded and making sure I had a social life outside of graduate school—you saved my sanity more than once. I also wish to thank my colleagues in the history program, beginning with my wonderful cohort, who laughed and learned with me from our very first day in 502. Thanks to my friends ahead of me in the program, who freely shared their experience and wisdom, and to my friends who entered the program in the years after, who kept me company in the later stages of this journey. There are more of you than I can name who helped me on my way. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I am especially grateful to my dear friends Tom Walsh, iv Meaghan Heisinger Siekman, Linnéa Caproni Hallam, Kim Engel-Pearson, Tash Wisemiller, Liz Heath, Bobby Bonner, Dana Bennett, and Susan Valeri. Each of you has made a lasting impression on me. This dissertation grew out of the Historic Resource Study of Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site that I wrote for the National Park Service while working on my degree. As I researched and wrote that document, which is a narrative history of the site, and as I delved into the literature of space and place in my classes, the idea for analyzing the body of stories surrounding Lorenzo Hubbell grew in my mind. The projects overlapped considerably—as I conducted archival research, I found myself looking into the correspondence of little-known Arizona travelers and the history of Hubbell’s property mortgages simultaneously. Thus, while the theoretical analysis and focus of this dissertation are unique, it rests squarely on the foundation of research I laid in writing the HRS. Where there is overlap in content, usually in the form of background history or descriptions of individual visitors’ trips to the trading post, in most cases I have paraphrased and cited the HRS in the footnotes. Chapter Four, which deals with technical information about Hubbell’s role in the creation of the Southwestern curio trade, has sections taken from the text of the HRS, noted in the footnotes, and is used with the permission of my committee and the National Park Service. v TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER Page 1 INTRODUCTION ................. ................................................................................................. 1 Literature Review................................................................................................... 14 Sources and Methodology ................................................................................... 34 Overview of Chapters .......................................................................................... 36 2 THE LIFE AND LEGEND OF JUAN LORENZO HUBBELL .............................. 40 The Legendary Ancestry of Juan Lorenzo Hubbell ....................................... 45 The Early Adventures of J. L. Hubbell ............................................................. 55 The Pueblo Colorado Valley as Space ............................................................... 62 Romance and Politics in St. Johns ..................................................................... 74 The Pueblo Colorado Valley as Place ................................................................ 78 3 THE PRINCE OF HOSPITALITY ................................................................................... 82 Indian Traders and Antimodernists ................................................................... 89 The Rewards of Hospitality ............................................................................... 100 The Experience and Narrative of Hubbell’s Hospitality ............................. 103 Theodore Roosevelt: A Case Study ................................................................. 110 The Legendary Limits of Hubbell’s Hospitality ...........................................