Will Evans's writings should find a special niche in the small but significant body of literature from and about traders to the Navajos. Evans was the proprietor of the Shiprock Trading Company. Probably more than most of his fellow traders, he had a strong interest in Navajo culture. The effort he made to record and share what he learned certainly was unusual. He published in the Farmington and New Mexico newspapers and other periodicals, compiling many of his pieces into a book manuscript. His subjects were Navajos he knew and traded with, their stories of historic events such as the Long Walk, and descriptions of their culture as he, an outsider without academic training, understood it. Evans's writings were colored by his fondness for, uncommon access to, and friendships with Navajos, and by who he was: a trader, folk artist, and Mormon. He accurately portrayed the operations of a trading post and knew both the material and artistic value of Navajo crafts. His art was mainly inspired by Navajo sandpainting. He appropriated and, no doubt, sometimes misappropriated that sacred art to paint surfaces and objects of all kinds. As a Mormon, he had particular views of who the Navajos were and what they believed and was representative of a large class of often-overlooked traders. Much of the Navajo trade in the Four Corners region and farther west was operated by Mormons. They had a significant historical role as intermediaries, or brokers, between Native and European American peoples in this part of the West. Well connected at the center of that world, Evans was a good spokesperson.

Along Navajo Trails

History

Evans, Will

Americas

Utah State University Press

Along Navajo Trails: Recollections of a Trader 1898-1948

Biographies & Memoirs

Community & Culture

The book charts the history of interstate rugby league competition from 1908, and the issues and dynamics that impacted the evolution of Origin into the code's showpiece event, including fierce rivalry that exists between the Blues and the Maroons.

A History of State of Origin

Slattery Media Group

Close Encounters of the Rustic Kind II: More Retrospective Rural Recollections

Engineering & Transportation

Engineering

Mazewill Publications

'Close Encounters of the Rustic Kind' starts in the late 1960s and follows the progress of Will Evans who was raised in the south east of England just west of London. He moves to the 'wild' north Devon countryside while still in his teens and fulfils a childhood dream by finding employment on a farm amongst a rural community little changed since before World War Two. His semi-rural Home Counties upbringing, however, had ill prepared him for the rigours and hardships of agricultural life on the fringes of Exmoor, and, learning on the job became a necessary day to day requirement in an unrelenting and unforgiving workplace. The idyllic rural dream becomes a distant memory but he is captivated by the way of life revolving around the old fashioned village in which he lives and is constantly entertained by the innumerable larger than life local characters. He gradually establishes himself after an 'apprenticeship' lasting several years and the country life anecdotes in the book describe noteworthy and singular events and situations encountered on his long and winding journey working on local farms and in the surrounding villages. Events that were often trying, invariably highly amusing and, sometimes, just downright difficult, but, they were nearly always enhancing experiences although perhaps not always appreciated as such at the time. He progresses from being employed to being a farmer in his own right - a transformation which presents a whole new set of challenges which culminate in increasingly unpredictable circumstances both in his working life and personal life. This whimsical and humorous book will enthral town and country dweller alike, shining a light on country living five decades ago when the world was perhaps just a little less complicated.

Close Encounters of the Rustic Kind: Retrospective Rural Recollections

Professionals & Academics

UK Book Publishing

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Books by Evans, Will