1. Elsie Comanche Allen was a Native American Pomo basket weaver from the Cloverdale Rancheria of Pomo Indians of California in Northern California, significant as for historically categorizing and teaching Californian Indian basket patterns and techniques and sustaining traditional Pomo basketry as an art form.
Elsie Comanche Allen was born on September 22,1899, near Santa Rosa, California.
Elsie Allen attended the Indian boarding school for less than year and then opted to attend a day school in which she felt more comfortable attending- it was here that Elsie became proficient in speaking English during her early teen years.
Elsie Allen lived briefly in San Francisco at the age of 18, where she found housekeeping and hospital work jobs, and it was in San Francisco that Elsie met her husband, Arthur Allen.
Elsie Allen made it a point to direct her efforts in ensuring Pomo students had education funding.
Elsie Allen was once involved in a desegregation case regarding non-Native-owned businesses that would not allow Pomos and whites to sit together.
Elsie Allen came from a family of accomplished basketweavers, including her mother, Annie Ramon Gomachu Burke and her maternal grandmother, Mary Arnold, both of Cloverdale Rancheria.
Elsie Allen's mother founded the Pomo Indian Women's Club, which promotes the tribe's basketry.
Late in her career, Elsie Allen began using commercial materials in her baskets after receiving a vision.
Together with Mabel McKay and Laura Somersal, Elsie Allen is regarded as one of the three best-known California basketweavers of her generation.