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My name is Tyra D. Preston. I am Manygoats, born for the Mexican clan. My maternal grandparents are Salt and my paternal grandparents are German descent. I am a 5th generation weaver from Teec Nos Pos, Arizona. I currently reside in Teec Nos Pos with my family. My husband Shane, my daughter Autumn and my son Kholte.
Being inspired at the age of 7 years old, by my grandmother Mary K. Clah (Shimá as we call her), introduced me to the beauty of weaving, it's teachings of the traditional lifeways and the importance of preserving those traditions. I first took interest in weaving at our sheep camp; which is located on top of the Carrizo Mountain, at the very young age of 7 years old. I remember watching my great grandmother, Elizabeth Kady Begay weaving at her loom. And thus watching her made me so eager to learn how to weave, that I told her that one-day, "I wanted to weave like her and Shimá".
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I'm a Diné and my mothers are the Tł'izi lani, the Many Goats clan, and born for Ashiihi, the Salt clan. My Maternal grandparents are the Bit'ahnii, the Folded Arms people and my paternal grandparents are the Hashk'aa hadzohi, the Yucca Fruit-Strung-Out-In-A-Line people. I was raised in a small sheepherding town of T'iis Názbąs, Manygoats Springs, Arizona. It is my hope that I could share with you my Dine' culture and my expressions of the sacred art, which Spider Man and Spider Woman has given us. I learned the art of weaving from my mother and grand mother, my grand father taught how to make Horse implements, and I was about 9 years old when I first recited weaving.
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Ester is the Grand Aunt of Dine’ Woven, she started learning the Art of Dine’ Weaving at about the age of six years old. “I was the only child that didn’t get a white education, my parents kept me hidden from the government”, say’s Ester. So that was how Ester learned to become a Shepard-ist and a beautiful Dine’ Weaving Artist.
Ester uses a lot of her Hand Processed Wool yarns, that she processes herself. She still tends to about 30 heads of sheep/goats. My parent’s told me that the sheep was a very special gift that was given to us by Changing Woman, and that she instructed us, “As long as you have this scared animal, you will always prosper and never starve”. So Ester believes that one day, we will encounter a time that the value of our sheep will be scares and of demand.
Ester is now about 8o or more years old, and she continues to weave at her home at “Newly Growing Tree”, in Beclahbeto, N.M. She weaves a lot of Saddle Blankets and Teec Nos Pos Style rugs.
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