The stories she tells to Assiniboine and Gros Ventre children of the Fort Belknap Reservation in Montana are part of the bicultural program she established there. She is part of the new wave of university- educated Native Americans taking over the roles of cultural teacher and educational administrator on reservations across North America. Allen is also an artist. Her computers, scanners, laser printers and desktop publishing software pump out bilingual texts for the Lodge Pole Hayes school district. With modem and telecommunications tools her stories can flicker across telephone lines and satellite links to computer screens hundreds of miles apart.
Assiniboine children touch the glowing images with their fingertips.
Assiniboine, Crow and English words join the images. Myths and history march together, telling the story of the Vanish Braves who followed deer into the forest and are bewitched into the form of tall pine trees. Its like cartoons, only more interesting, more exciting, because its their own language, and about them, our own heritage. To the south, in the dry washes at the end of summer, when the desert stars shine bright and hard as small white stones, Navajo children watched their grandfather draw stories into the sand under the full moon. He carved worlds into their memories, telling them of bravery, trickery and wisdom he'd heard about from his grandfather.