Navajo

NavajoFor decades, the gleaming silver trailers of Navajo Freight Lines traveled Americas highways, including Route 66, bearing the striking image of a blue eyed Indian. Starting humbly in 1934, in Wichita, Kansas, Navajo expanded during the postwar years, reaching, at its height, a fleet of 5,000 vehicles, 67 terminals, and 3,000 employees. They called themselves the tribe and advertised using now questionable imagery, such as Squeezable Squaw pinup girls.

For decades, the gleaming silver trailers of Navajo Freight Lines traveled AmericaÕs highways, including Route 66, bearing the striking image of a blue-eyed Indian. Starting humbly in 1934, in Wichita, Kansas, Navajo expanded during the postwar years, reaching, at its height, a fleet of 5,000 vehicles, 67 terminals, and 3,000 employees. They called themselves the tribe and advertised using now-questionable imagery, such as ÒSqueezable SquawÓ pinup girls. But changes in long-haul trucking in the 1970s retired the Blue-Eyed Indian just before deregulation struck. James E. WilmarthÕs research on Navajo Freightlines has been published in Wheels of Time and other periodicals. John and Kris Murphey write about historic highways and heritage travel, with articles published in American Road Magazine, SCA Journal, and others.