Indian Trader : The Life and Times of J. L. Hubbell

From the late 1870's until 1930, Juan Lorenzo Hubbell traded at Ganado, Arizona, in Navajo country. While Euro-Americans viewed him as the dean of Indian traders in the Southwest, Navajo sentiment varied.

J.L. Hubbell's life story tells the larger tale of the settlement of the West, the reservation trader, and the Indian economy. Marths Blue's ethnobiography weaves the conflicts and complexities of the Southwest into Hubbell's life: the Navajos' repatriation and economic recovery, the sera of the reservation trader in frontier history, the tourist explosion wrought by the Santa Fe Railway and the Fred Harvey Company. It also explores Arizona's quest for statehood, water development in its desert plateau country, the transition of the Navajo blanket to rug, and the image-makers' (artists, writers and photographers) portrayals of the Southwest.

Drawing on historical documents, oral histories, and archival materials, Blue presents a fascinating tapestry of character and place richly illustrated by over 100 photographs and maps. Her portrait of Juan Lorenzo Hubbell positions him squarely in the gallery of the West's prominent men.

Martha Blue's careers as a lawyer and a writer reflect her years of living and working in Arizona's Indian country. In 1967, she was one of the first lawyers hired by the fledgling DNA program, a legal aid program for Navajos and Hopis. She served later in the same capacity for Micronesian Legal Services on Ponape in the Eastern Caroline Islands. In the early 1970's, she opened a private practice on the Navajo Indian Reservation and in the border town of Flagstaff, Arizona, where she specialized in Indian law. She was also general counsel for the Havasupai, the People of the Blue-Green Waters. She has served as Chair of the Arizona State Bar's Art Law Committee, regional director of Books for Kids (for which she received the Parnassus Award), founder and president of Friends of Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site, Inc., trustee of the Museum of Northern Arizona, and board member for Native Americans for Community Action and DNA.

She has published widely and lectured on Navajo history, Indian welfare, Southwest artists, and legal help for artists and writers. She is a member of the Authors Guild and Western Writers of America.

Martha Blue resides with her husband, Ollie Johnson, in the passive solar home that he designed and built in Flagstaff, Arizona.