Paula Gunn Allen (October 24, 1939 - May 29, 2008) was a Native American poet, literary critic, lesbian activist,and novelist.

This is the sixty-eighth post in a series highlighting the best gay and
lesbian authors from the 20th century (with a few before and after that
period) who have recorded in fiction, and nonfiction, the history of gay
people telling what life is, and was, during an important time of
history.

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.

Anthropological writings and literary criticism
Allen's studies would eventually result in The Sacred Hoop: Recovering
the Feminine in American Indian Traditions, a controversial text which
argues that the accounts of Native beliefs and traditions were subverted
by phallogocentric European explorers and colonizers, who downplayed or
erased the central role that woman played in most Native societies.
Allen argued that many Native tribes were "gynocratic", with women
making the principal decisions, while others believed in absolute
balance between male and female, with neither side gaining dominance.
Allen's arguments and research were much criticized in the years
following publication of The Sacred Hoop. Gerald Vizenor and others have
accused her of a simple reversal of essentialism, while historians and
anthropologists have disproved or questioned some of her scholarship.
However, her book and subsequent work also proved hugely influential,
provoking an outpouring of feminist studies of Native cultures and
literature. It remains a set text within many Native American Studies
and Women's Studies programs.

Allen
also wrote many essays of literary criticism. These often stress the
sacredness of Native religions, attempting to ensure that these are
treated as religions rather than being patronized as "folklore" or
"myths".
Creative writing
Allen was well-known as a novelist, poet and short story writer. Her
work, like that of fellow Laguna writer Leslie Marmon Silko, drew
heavily on the Pueblo tales of Grandmother Spider and the Corn Maiden,
and is noted for a strongly political streak.
Her novel, The Woman Who Owned The Shadows, was published in 1983. The
story revolves around Ephanie, a mixed-blood like Allen herself, and her
struggle to express herself creatively. As a poet, Allen's most
successful collection so far is probably Life Is a Fatal Disease :
Collected Poems 1962-1995. Allen has also been responsible for a number
of collections of Native American writings, including Spider Womans
Granddaughters: Traditional Tales and Contemporary Writing by Native
American Women.
Allen's work has been categorized as belonging to the Native American Renaissance, though she herself rejected the label.
Awards
Allen was awarded an American Book Award by the Before Columbus
Foundation, the Native American Prize for Literature, the Susan
Koppelman Award, and in 2001 she was awarded a Lifetime Achievement
Award by the Native Writers' Circle of the Americas.

FOR A COMPLETE LONG LIST OF HER WRITING CREDITS, AND REFERENCES PLEASE GO TO

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paula_Gunn_Allen