Hunt's Trading Post #1: A Native-Run Third Space in a Utah Mormon Town | Authored by: Vee Hua

HUNT'S TRADING POST documentary director Vee Hua with shop owner Bill Day.

I've heard countless stories about people having mystical experiences in the Southwest. Many of them are inexplicable -- think: metaphysical entities, mind-blowing healings, or other ??? happenings -- but I only really believed it for myself when I had my own moments of magic there. For me, those moments of magic manifested more in the form of sudden epiphanies or synchronicities which have led me to deep, deep understanding of my life path... and for that reason, I kept finding myself returning to the Southwest -- to New Mexico and the Four Corners region, in particular.

Maybe it makes sense, then, that over the course of April 2022, I decided to stay in moderately-entertaining Blanding, Utah for two weeks. Blanding is a great launch-off point for Mesa Verde National Park, Canyonlands National Park's Needles District, Bears Ears National Monument, and Monument Valley Tribal Park on Navajo Nation. In short, it is surrounded by beautiful and central to some of my favorite places in the area, which is why I picked it on a map without knowing anything much about it.

Yet the town itself: mixed reviews, one could say. Not the most exciting food options around, that's for sure -- unless you call the truly epic selection of candy at the A&W-mixed-with-gas-station-and-bowling-alley exciting. (I guess I kind of did; not gonna lie.)

Given its location on the tourist route, Blanding does have some interesting museums, including a walkeable outdoor park with Indigenous and pioneer architecture structures of present and yore. Settled in the late 1900s by Mormons, Blanding is the type of place where Native people make up almost a quarter of the population due to its proximity to the Diné (Navajo) and Southern Ute reservations, among others, but they're not exactly holding public office often or holding the reigns of power, so to speak.

All of this context is part of the reason that stumbling upon HUNT'S TRADING POST was and continues to be such a delight. The moment I entered, met the owner, and witnessed all the magic that happens there, I stayed for hours and did not want to leave. And I kept going back.

That first day, I had been fiending for coffee. And what can I say? I ended up at Hunt's.

As Hunt's Trading Post owner "Bill Day" would later tell us, he and his late wife Debbie Hunt weren't sure that the local City Council or whatever was gonna let them put in a coffee shop in their trading post because Blanding is a "nice little Mormon town." After the City Council or whatever said yes, "Bill Day"'s signature drink, COWBOY COFFEE, was born! (It's an Americano, and yes, he is hip enough to have all necessary milk options.)

I put "Bill Day" in quotes because his name seems like a goshdarn mystery, even though it isn't. Colloquially, some people call him William, some people call him Wayne, and some people call him Bill. Who knows what else. He tells us all of those are his names.

We like to joke his name is Billy Bob Wayne Day. With his deep voice and kinda-serious sense of humor, Bill doesn't mind. He is a vibe. He's the type of grandpa you want to hang out with forever. And so is Hunt's Trading Post.

Thus, after numerous trips back across the past three years: my collaborator and I, cinematographer Kamyar Mohsenin, made a film about the magic of Hunt's Trading Post, with its long-standing legacy of serving the Native people in Blanding, Utah.

Film still of Bill Day from HUNT'S TRADING POST documentary.

Through this process, I've learned that people have very little idea what a trading post is. As a historical thing, trading posts are questionable, because they existed because of colonization. White settlers ran them on Native reservations, because all of a sudden, Native people needed to enter into a Western system of capitalism, and trading posts allowed them to trade their arts, crafts, and resources for money and food. Native wares colored the Western imagination, and some Native people had to rely on trading posts to be their banks, their source of income, and sometimes source of sustenance and survival.

Not exactly great that they needed to exist. Yet assimilation of trading post owners into Native communities or their level of respect -- or lack thereof -- definitely varied. Some traders learned to speak the local Native languages and married into tribes. Some took advantage of their clientele. All combinations and mixtures of the above.

Archival image of a Day family trading post

These days, many trading posts literally are tourist traps. Fake teepees. Wood-carved Injuns with tomahawks welcoming you at the entrance. Literal dreamcatcher necklaces which have the words "Made in China" punched into the metal on the backside.

Which is why the fact that Bill Day is an enrolled Navajo Nation citizen -- who went to boarding school and who identifies much more as Native than white -- makes this story much more interesting than that of many trading posts in this day and age. The Day family ran trading posts since the 1800s, and his wife's family, the Hunt's, also were fluent in Navajo. Both families worked with artisans and vendors with respect, and they knows their families. They're part of the community. Hunt's Trading Post is more than a tourist trap. It has decades of stories to tell.

Debbie Hunt and Ray Hunt, Deb's dad and former owner of Hunt's Trading Post, who retired from the biz when he was in his 90s!

Images of earlier version of Hunt's Trading Post from 1994

I have two more OTV newsletters plus an OTV Instagram takeover dedicated to Hunt's Trading Post, and along the way, I'll share more photos of Bill, his family's ties to the Navajo tribe, my journey to knowing him, and much more.

On August 16th, in part thanks to a grant we received from #OTVAtlas which helped us with our post-production efforts, we will premiere the film on Bill's birthday, in community, at Edge of the Cedars State Park in Blanding. I can't wait to share more!

Meanwhile, you can follow my journey with this film and my upcoming feature film, RECKLESS SPIRITS (a metaphysical, multilingual POC best friend comedy), over HERE.