Located in Southern Utah, just outside of the Navajo and Ute Nations, Hunt’s Trading Post is an irreplaceable gem and third space operated by the charismatic Wayne Day, an enrolled Navajo Nation citizen. Hunt’s carries on the multi-generational legacy of the Days and the Hunts — two family lineages which came together after Day married his wife, Debbie Hunt. Both families have collectively operating trading posts in the Four Corners region since the late 1800s.

Remaining true to their family legacies, Hunt’s Trading Post is one of the last trading posts in its area that still operates in the “old way” and has not turned into a tourist shop that sells imported, falsely Indigenous goods. With an unparalleled work ethic and true care for his community, Day sources directly from Native artisans and medicine men, using the trading post as an outlet for economic opportunities and access to the tools, medicines, and ceremonial objects which are necessary for Natives both off and on the reservation to maintain close ties to their traditional ways of life. The trading post’s work is necessary in the white-dominated, Mormon-settled town where it is located. Natives from around the region drive, sometimes through hundreds of miles of desert, to come to Hunt’s Trading Post for an opportunity to share their livelihoods or commune with like-minded relatives.

Still, the question remains: with Day in his ’80s and his wife recently passed, what is the importance of a true small town trading post, and will the next generation see the value in helping it continue?