Minerva Allen

Minerva Crantz Allen (Assiniboine: Sunk' Pa, April 24, 1934 – May 24, 2024) was a poet, educator and elder and citizen of the Assiniboine tribe. She advocated for Native American education and was the author of Spirits Rest and five other works of poetry. She served as the director of the Lodge Pole Senior Center and was a Native American champion at Montana State University.

Early life and education Overview of the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation where Allen resided for the majority of her life. Allen was born on April 24, 1934 in Big Warm, located in north central Montana. Her father Ernest Crantz Sr. was of French Chipewyan descent and her mother Felistis Chopwood was born an Assiniboine – Gros Ventre. Her grandfather encouraged her to pursue education and at six years old, Allen began school. She learned to speak English from missionaries. She began studies at Flandreau Indian School and then continued to Northern Montana College (MSU-Northern).

Career Educator After her studies, Allen would spend many years as a teacher and educator, and taught for twenty years in different grades of the Hays Lodge Pole School District.

Poet and knowledge holder Allen felt a strong responsibility to share and pass on her knowledge of Assiniboine customs and language to others. Following in the storytelling traditions of Allen's childhood, poetry came easy to her. She would begin to write poetry as a young child, on scraps of paper to conquer the loneliness she felt as a young child raised by her grandparents. She would write five more books of poetry, Vanishing Braves (1987), Spirits Rest (1981), Inktomi and the Ducks (1986), Stories by Our Elders: The Fort Belknap People (1983) and Nakoda Sky People (2012), as well as contribute poetry to other compilations.

Allen would also share her knowledge of the Gros Ventre and Assiniboine languages and customs with scholars and academics to preserve them, as well as the stories of her people and the traditional medicines and plants they would use. In 2016 she was recognized by the U.S. House of Representatives with an official "Tribute to Minerva Crantz Allen" after receiving an award for her work preserving the language of her elders. Using her knowledge of the landscape, and the uses of certain plants by the Assiniboine people, she was able to advise scientists on the types of seeds to use and locations to plant them in order to restore the landscape.

Personal life and death Allen married John Allen in 1951 and the couple shared eight children. They additionally adopted six more, and were involved in raising many others from their community. Allen's son, John Allen Jr., has followed in her footsteps as a Assiniboine spiritual leader and healer, using medicinal knowledge he learned from his mother. Inktomi and the Ducks (1986) Vanishing Braves (1987) Nakoda Sky People (2012)