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Paula Gunn Allen

Paula Gunn Allen Books

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“The Indians used to be the only inhabitants of the Americas, but times change. Having perceived us as belonging to history, they are free to emote over us, to re-create us in their history-based understanding, and dismiss our present lives as archaic and irrelevant to the times.”

UsedUnderstandingUsed To BeBelongingIrrelevantPresent LifeEmote
Book:The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions
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“What the Indians are saying is that they are recognizing the right of wilderness to be wilderness. Wilderness is not an extension of human need or of human justification. It is itself and it is inviolate, itself. This does not mean that, therefore, we become separated from it, because we don't. We stay connected if, once in our lives, we learn exactly what that connection is between our heart, our womb, our mind, and wilderness. And when each of us has her wilderness within her, we can be together in a balanced kind of way. The forever, we have that within us.”

IfsWayNeedsMindHumansHeartKindMeanDoeTogetherNatureForeverOur LivesLandConnectionsConnectedWildernessBalancedJustificationExtensionsRecognizingWombHuman Needs
Book:Off the Reservation: Reflections on Boundary-busting Border-crossing Loose Canons
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“Some feminist critics debate whether we take our meaning and sense of self from language and in that process become phallocentric ourselves, or if there is a use of language that is, or can be, feminine. Some, like myself, think that language is itself neither male nor female; it is creatively expansive enough to be of use to those who have the wit and art to wrest from it their own significance. Even the dread patriarchs have not found a way to 'own' language any more than they have found a way to 'own' earth (though many seem to believe that both are possible).”

IfsThinkingWayBelieveArtSelfEnoughUseSeemsEarthFoundLanguageProcessFemaleCriticsMalesFeministWitDebateSignificanceFeminineDreadSense Of SelfUse Of Language
Book:Off the Reservation: Reflections on Boundary-busting Border-crossing Loose Canons
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“Breath is life, and the intermingling of breaths is the purpose of good living. This is in essence the great principle on which all productive living must rest, for relationships among all the beings of the universe must be fulfilled; in this way each individual life may also be fulfilled.”

WayMayPurposeUniverseIndividualPrinciplesEssenceBreathsProductiveFulfilledIndividual LifeGood Living
Book:The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions
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“Truth, acceptance of the truth, is a shattering experience. It shatters the binding shroud of culture trance. It rips apart smugness, arrogance, superiority, and self-importance. It requires acknowledgment of responsibility for the nature and quality of each of our own lives, our own inner lives as well as the life of the world. Truth, inwardly accepted, humbling truth, makes one vulnerable. You can't be right, self-righteous, and truthful at the same time.”

WorldWellsSelfTruthCultureQualityResponsibilityAcceptanceTruth IsImportanceAcceptedVulnerableArroganceRighteousTruthfulSuperiorityRipInner LifeBindingHumblingSelf RighteousTranceAcknowledgmentSelf-importanceShatteringShroudsSmugness
Book:Off the Reservation: Reflections on Boundary-busting Border-crossing Loose Canons
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“Humor is widely used by Indians to deal with life. Indian gatherings are marked by laughter and jokes, many directed at the horrors of history, at the continuing impact of colonization, and at the biting knowledge that living as an exile in one's own land necessitates. . . . Certainly the time frame we presently inhabit has much that is shabby and tricky to offer; and much that needs to be treated with laughter and ironic humor.”

NeedsUsedDealsLandHorrorOffersLaughterJokesImpactTreatedIndianIronicContinuingGatheringExileTrickyAmerican IndianBitingColonizationShabby
Author:Paula Gunn Allen
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“English is, from my point of view as an Americanist, an ethnicity. And English literature should be studied in Comparative Literature. And American literature should be a discipline, certainly growing from England and France, Germany, Spain, Denmark, and the Native traditions, particularly because those helped form the American canon. Those are our backgrounds. And then we'd be doing it the way it ought to be done. And someday I hope that it will be.”

WayShouldDoneFormLiteratureViewsGrowingOughtDisciplineTraditionEnglandPoint Of ViewBackgroundsFranceGermanyNativeSomedaySpainEthnicityAmerican LiteratureCanonDenmarkEnglish LiteratureComparative Literature
Author:Paula Gunn Allen
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“In the Native American tradition... a man, if he's a mature adult, nurtures life. He does rituals that will help things grow, he helps raise the kids, and he protects the people. His entire life is toward balance and cooperativeness. The ideal of manhood is the same as the ideal of womanhood. You are autonomous, self-directing, and responsible for the spiritual, social and material life of all those with whom you live.”

PeopleIfsMenDoeSelfHelpingKidsSpiritualLife IsSocialGrowsMaterialsBalanceProtectAdultsIdealsTraditionResponsibleRaisesNativeMatureRitualNative AmericanNurtureWomanhoodManhoodAutonomousAmerican Tradition
Author:Paula Gunn Allen
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“The hoop dancer dances within what encircles him, demonstrating how the people live in motion within the circling spirals of time and space. They are no more limited than water and sky. At green corn dance time, water and sky come together, in Indian time, to make rain.”

PeopleTogetherWaterSpaceSkyRainGreenIndianDancerTime And SpaceCornSpiralsDemonstrating
Book:The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions
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“There are many female gods recognized and honored by the tribes and Nations. Femaleness was highly valued, both respected and feared, and all social institutions reflected this attitude. Even modern sayings, such as the Cheyenne statement that a people is not conquered until the hearts of the women are on the ground, express the Indians understanding that without the power of woman the people will not live, but with it, they will endure and prosper.”

PeopleHeartNationsSocialUnderstandingInspiringAttitudeModernFemaleInstitutionsEndureStatementsTribesHonoredSocial InstitutionsCheyenne
Book:The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions
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