Paula Gunn Allen

Paula Gunn Allen (October 24, 1939 - May 29, 2008) was a Native American poet, literary critic, lesbian activist, and novelist. Born Paula Marie Francis in Albuquerque, Allen grew up in Cubero, New Mexico, a Spanish-Mexican land grant village bordering the Laguna Pueblo reservation. Of mixed Laguna, Sioux, Scottish, and Lebanese-American descent, Allen always identified most closely with the people among whom she spent her childhood and upbringing. Having obtained a BA and MFA from the University of Oregon, Allen gained her PhD at the University of New Mexico, where she taught and where she began her research into various tribal religions. Allen's studies would eventually result in The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American...