Off the Reservation

In this captivating collection of unpublished and published essays, one of our most important scholars, Paula Gunn Allen, explores the symbiotic relationship between Native American culture and the larger Western world. Through her own history and that of other Native peoples, she searches for a connection that will link the eco-spiritual and implicitly multicultural heritage to the demands of an increasingly global and culturally unilateral community.Gunn Allen submerges deep in the waters of history and returns bearing words and legends of the past. —Gabrielle Shaw, Foreword

"Allen is a pathfinder. . . . As significant as any who have come before." —Quannah Karvar, The Los Angeles Times Book Review

"She expands the academic discussion with personal accounts of her life experiences as a mixed-blood Laguna Indian/Lebanese American. . . . Creative, imaginative, yet well-argued." —P. Jane Hafen, MultiCultural Review

"Intelligent critique from a renegade spirit who can inspire us all to see what the global prospects are 'off the reservation.'" —Philip Herbst, BooklistPaula Gunn Allen (1939-2008) was a professor of English at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a Native American of Laguna Pueblo and Sioux heritage. She authored many books, including The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Tradition, and was the editor of Spider Woman’s Granddaughters: Traditional Tales and Contemporary Writing by Native American Women, which won an American Book Award in 1990.