11/13/2015
Background on our name and tradition: We didn't open our business in 1876, but that's when it all began.
In 1876, Seth Benjamin moved his family to Arizona, to an isolated cabin on the Little Colorado River near Tuba City, on the present-day Navajo reservation. Tanner got along well with both the Navajo and Hopi Indians; he and his children learned their languages, and they called him by a Navajo name, Hastiin Shush, which meant "Mr. Bear," and his sons were known as Shush Yaz, or "Little Bear."
Tanner's descendants even today operate Indian trading posts throughout the Southwest. "He was often appointed to deal with the natives, having the happy faculty of making friends with them ... Seth was a modest man but he was always thoughtful of others, and during his travels and life-long experiences when he was associated with others in travel, he was generally set apart as a hunter and fisher and to provide meat for the company."
Tanner was a gentle, solitary man of the desert, and he did a lot of traveling and exploring through Northern Arizona. He engaged in prospecting and mining in the area, but does not seem to have had too much success in these ventures. It is said that his name is somewhat of a legend in northern Arizona, and many natural features bear his name.
Shush Yaz Trading is owned and operated by Seth's great-great grandson, Don.
