We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Mariah Diaz a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Mariah , thanks for joining us today. Can you tell us a bit about who your hero is and the influence they’ve had on you?

I have a lot of “hero’s” I’d like to say in my life that inspired me to do what I do.
My Grandma and Grandpa for the first two who were the ones that always had me. They showed me how it was to live on the reservation growing up around all the woods taking me places as well. My grandma and grandpa grew up on the reservation in Oneida, they really never got the chance to learn their culture like I did. My grandpa has been very hard working since he was younger he only got to make it to 8th grade before he started working, my grandma went to a church school. A lot of my learning came from being able to go to pow wows as well as attending a Native American school in Milwaukee that of which my auntie was one of the founding mothers.

I’d say another main person would be my Auntie Sharon she is the one who taught me how to do my first beadwork pattern I learned which was the daisy stitch. When I was younger I don’t think I appreciated the significance behind what our culture is and or what we as a whole have been blessed with. She’s the one who pushed me forward to do what I do now and she believes in me, she helps with my kids while I work she’s one of the most giving and sacrificial person I have met in my life and I appreciate her so much. Along with that my Auntie Carmen who showed me how to do the two needle method and showing me different things as well, when me and my cousin Jade would bead before I would actually commit to beading. Auntie Carmen is one of the people who I believe is very giving and does a lot for our native youth and our people she deserves all the flowers thrown to her for everything she does.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Mariah “Tyakohelahthé” Diaz, I am Oneida tribe turtle clan from Milwaukee Wisconsin. I am a beader, I do beadwork. When I was younger I seen my auntie Sharon always beading she made alot of beaded dream catchers. When I attended Indian community school they taught us and showed how to loom bead.
After a while I became interested in learning how to bead when I seen beaded hats, I wanted to dip in because I know that I had to keep our culture alive so to speak.
Out of all of my siblings, I am the one that is more connected to our culture I am the one who does all the beadwork for everyone. At first it was just for fun and connecting more into what was taught to us by our elders and ancestors.
After a while when I posted my first beaded hat I started to gain a lot of attention and I kept growing and growing after that once I grew off hats I started to dabble into making earrings as well as other things.

For customers I listen to what they love and or what they would like I take my creativity and their idea take it and put it into the beadwork that is special to them, as well as myself. I love being able to take an idea and make it come to life with things I am able to do.
One thing I believe made me gain more attention was during Covid the NBA finals the Bucks won the championship, I made a beaded hat for Giannis that I was able to gift to him. Another thing I was blessed to do was make one of the new bucks members Marjon Beauchamp who is also a known Native American man in the NBA I beaded him a medallion as well as a beaded cap.
I want to let people see that it’s not just beadwork it is also showing that we as native people are still here and able to bless everyone with new ways of beadwork and fashion as well as the culture.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

When I first started beading I told my Auntie Sharon that I wanted to start, she gave me everything that I needed to start with.
Beads, thread, bees wax, also needles.
I started beading caps also started posting pictures of everything that I worked on.
Most people like friends liked what I did and ordered hats, once I got a few orders I did research on what kind of beads to get and started ordering more beads.
Once I started to take off more with everything and making earrings I gained more following and started to grow from there.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

One thing that I had to learn was that a lot of family and or friends really aren’t supporters like you would think they are.
I notice that your main supporters come from strangers online, that they will be the ones that appreciate and are willing to pay the price of your work.
Not everyone is willing to share and or support you especially if other people who are in the same line of work, which I realized people (family) only supported me when I did big accomplishments.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Ostalokwabymariah
• Facebook: Mariah Tyakohelahthè Diaz

Image Credits

Mariah Diaz
Self Portrait : Haley Eaglestar