I am Navajo and reside at No Water Mesa on the western part of the Navajo reservation with my husband Alfred. I am a third-generation rug weaver. My mother is a weaver and I learned the art by watching her weave. In my early years, I helped my grandmother with her sheep and helped my mother with carding, spinning and cleaning the wool so she could weave. I come from a large family, so this was a means of support. I attended grade school in Leupp and high school in Flagstaff. I have four children, 3 girls and a boy, whom all learned how to weave. I earned my Bachelor’s degree from Northern Arizona University in 1994.
I learned how to weave when I was 5 years old. When my kids were young, we all wove and had different size looms which my husband built for us. I used to weave to supplement our income. My husband’s occupation also provided us a way to travel and live in different parts of the country, like California and Texas. Throughout the years, weaving became more of an art for me. I have gone back to the traditional Navajo ways; raising my Churro sheep and tending to them daily. I try to get different colors and shades from our sheep which all starts from the selection of the ram. I shear in the spring, card and spin the wool that I use in my weavings. I weave different style rugs including the double-side rug, but work mainly with the Two-Grey Hill style because of the wool that I have.
I have archival rugs in the National Museum of American Indian, Smithsonian Institute, Washington DC, the Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis, Indiana and the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona.