Nellie's Everything Cream

Twin Rocks Trading Post's Natural Pinon Cream


Those of you who have visited the trading post may have noticed the small bottles of pinion cream on the counter. Some of the bottles contain an opaque mixture with the earthy scent of pinion, some are mottled brown with a very strong smell. What they both are is pinion salve (sometimes mislabeled as pinion "slave"), pure, or mixed with coconut oil. It is a healing mixture, a natural antibiotic of sorts, developed back in the early days by Native people. In the old days the Navajo mixed mutton tallow and lanolin with the strained pinion pitch for spreadability. The pioneers became aware of this natural wonder shortly after their first encounter with the inhabitants of our area. When I first became aware of this "natural medicine" is unclear. I was certainly very young, and must have showed up at Grandma Fern's with a cut or scrape. Grandma Fern slathered her tried and true "sticky pine gum salve" on every wound that she considered likely to become infected.

It seemed that everyone in the area had a bottle of this homeopathic remedy in their medicine cabinets. The reason was plain and simple; it worked.


Nellie Tsosie and her mother in law at Twin Rocks


I first met Nellie Tsosie in the summer of 1998. She strolled into Blue Mountain Trading Post with a confident air. Nellie set out a number of baby food bottles filled with what she called, "Everything Cream".
"Everything," I said skeptically, eyeing the smooth spreading, aromatic substance, "What kind of everything?"
Nellie patiently explained that this was a natural salve that healed cuts, scrapes, bruises, and infections. Although I already knew, I was not about to let her know.
"It really works then?" I asked. "You think it can heal this?"
I showed her a carpet burn I had recently received while wrestling in the living room with my older brother Craig. Nellie dipped a finger into one of the bottles, extracting a small amount of her mystery oil, reached up and rubbed it onto my scrape. "Well," she said, "it works on my mule, it should work for you!" I was sold.

When we closed our Blue Mountain store and moved everything to Bluff, I brought Nellie's "Everything Cream" with me. Steve was skeptical to say the least, he mumbled something about "snake oil," and that he wasn't interested in selling unproven medication through Twin Rocks. That happens when people are over-educated. They lose their belief in the natural world. Everything must have scientific evidence to back it up. It didn't take long to prove up. The locals provided us with testimonials by the score. Almost everyone had a tale of a miraculous cure attributed to the wonder salve. My wife's eighty-something uncle tells the story of when he was a boy chopping wood. He missed a stroke and nearly chopped off his big toe. His mother patiently cleaned the wound, slathered on some sticky pine gum salve, and deftly sewed the appendage back in place. It healed fully. I have personally seen the scar, and I believe! A friend of mine swears that he pulled out the venom of a Brown Recluse spider with pinion salve; without loss of tissue. His doctor was amazed. I didn't personally see that one, but it came from a reliable source. My father jokingly tells a story of a woman who bought a jar of Nellie's "Everything Cream," took it home and set it on the kitchen table. The next morning her husband mistakenly spread it on his toast. The woman is now a regular customer; and swears that her husband is a new man since he first ingested it. Nellie just sits back and takes all of this in with a knowing smile on her face and says, "I told you so!"

At one point Nellie came into the store in a very bad mood. She told us that her husband had thrown out the pots and pans she used to make her cream. It seems that he was jealous of her new business, and was also displeased with her new sense of independence. Although we were already well stocked, we purchased everything Nellie had on hand to help her get restarted. Regaining her footing by purchasing new cooking utensils, she informed her husband that if he tried something like that again she would throw his saddle out in the yard. This is the ultimate threat for a Navajo woman to make to her mate; since it signifies divorce. Her husband took her at her word and has not caused Nellie a bit of trouble since. Navajo woman have traditionally followed in the footsteps of their husbands, preferring to follow rather than lead. I guess this is no longer the case, at least with Nellie.

Nellie continues to produce her "Everything Cream". She claims that it has grown into a national phenomenon. Nellie and her mother-in-law have traveled all over the Four Corners region selling Nellie's products. She has even had limited success in California, and as far east as Virginia. This woman is not afraid to get out and market her cream. We are privileged to see Nellie and "Mom" on a monthly basis. We enjoy their visits a great deal and look forward to hearing their latest business schemes. Which brings up Nellie's multilevel marketing proposal. I told Nellie that I was interested because I had faith in her, and her miracle product. It also fits in with the promise I made to my wife, that I would not fall for another multi-level marketing scheme unless I was at or near the top of the pyramid. So anyone interested in getting in on the ground floor of a "sure thing", let me know right away. This is going to be big, and nobody should miss this opportunity. Steve has suggested that we call it, "Uncle Barry's cure-all" and that we get a team and wagon to go out on the road.

Copyright©2002 Twin Rocks Trading Post