Paula Gunn Allen 1939-2008

Native American Poet

A noted scholar and chronicler of the Native American experience, University of Oregon graduate Paula Gunn Allen wrote award-winning poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and literary criticism. She was also an activist around issues of feminism, gay and lesbian rights, and the antiwar and antinuclear movements.  

Born Paula Marie Francis in Albuquerque, she grew up in Cubero, New Mexico. The family had multicultural heritage—Laguna Pueblo, Sioux, and Scottish on her mother’s side; Lebanese on her father’s side. Her father, a store owner, would later serve as the state’s lieutenant governor.  

At the UO, she studied with poet Ralph Salisbury, who was of Cherokee heritage, earning a bachelor’s degree in English and a master of fine arts in creative writing. She completed her studies with a doctorate in American studies from the University of New Mexico, then embarked on a teaching career that culminated in a position on the faculty of the University of California, Los Angeles.  

Published in 1986, a book of essays by Allen, The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Tradition (1986) was considered a watershed in bringing to light the woman-centered, matrilineal culture of pre-colonial societies, contradicting the accepted European historical viewpoint.  

Literary critics lauded “her purity of language and emotional intensity.” In her lifetime, Paula Gunn Allen received many awards, including the American Book Award in 1990 and the Modern Language Association’s J. Hubbell Medal for American Literature in 1999.