[1] She is the granddaughter of Pomo basket weaver Susan Santiago Billy.
[3] In that time, Billy became familiar with the dozen shapes and almost 300 patterns traditionally used in Pomo basketry.
[4] Allen had hoped to pass on her basket-weaving knowledge but had thought no young people were interested until Billy arrived.
She had grown up with several baskets by her grandmother Susan Santiago Billy which occupied a place of reverence during her childhood but she never thought at the time she would be a weaver.
[5] In 1990 Billy began her research for a 1994 exhibition, “Remember your Relations: The Elsie Allen Baskets and Family” which showed at the Grace Hudson Museum in Ukiah, California, and at the Oakland Museum of California, where she was a guest curator for the show and a coauthor of the book by the same name.