All the best artists, musicians, singers, athletes, and anyone who reaches the top of their career have one thing in common: none of them had those skills when they started. It takes a lot of practice and a lot of work.

Navajo weaver Ruby Manuelito  (B.1936) had the pedigree. Her mother was a great weaver, Francis Manuelito, and her grandmother, Blind Man's Wife. They are all from the reservation's Two Grey Hills/Toadlena area.

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Ruby's husband was the son of Ira Manuelito. His mother, "Mrs. Sam," was the niece of the famous medicine man Hastiin Klah, the first person to weave a sand painting rug and depict these sacred images in a permanent form. He and his sisters wove many sand paintings, and Klah performed special ceremonies to protect them, as no one was supposed to create these images other than for actual ceremonies. Klah felt they would be lost if someone did not put them in permanent form. Most are in the Wheelwright Museum in Santa Fe, where they are available to scholars and medicine men.

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Ruby eventually followed Klah and wove sand paintings, but she initially wove Two Grey Hills designs. When she began, these pieces were small, and as she continued, they became finer. By the time she was weaving sand paintings, most of her work counted over 80 threads per inch, and these pieces now sell for between ten and twenty thousand dollars.

In the 1960s, when Ruby was developing her skills, a couple from Ohio purchased one of her weavings from Ed Foutz at Shiprock Trading Co. It is a gorgeous little Two Grey Hills with a weft count of 56-60 threads per inch. The original tag has Ruby's name and the original price of $450. That was pretty expensive in the '60s!

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At that time, she had already passed most weavers with her ability, but she was on the way to becoming one of the best-known Navajo weavers. It is an excellent example of Ruby Manuelito's work on her road to becoming one of the best.