Elizabeth Manygoats

Elizabeth Manygoats is Diné, Navajo Nation, and one of 10 children of Betty Manygoats. Elizabeth is a very skilled potter, hand-building and firing her pieces by traditional methods. Along with traditional Navajo pottery styles that she embellishes with clay appliquéd horned toads, ears of corn, and prickly pear cactus, she also creates pictorial scenes of Navajo life called “lifestyle” pots. Most of Elizabeth’s work consists of pictorial scenes with lively, realistically painted figures depicting life on the reservation. She emphasizes Navajo women and their daily lives because “they’re the ones I look up to.” She also fondly portrays horses, sheep, and chickens, the animals that surrounded her as a child on the reservation.