Sophia Alice Callahan
An item at American Writers Museum
Sophia Alice Callahan's Muscogee grandfather died during the Trail of Tears, the tribe's forced displacement from their ancestral lands in the Southeast. His son, Callahan's father, grew up to be a prominent member of the Muscogee community in Oklahoma and raised eight children with his white Methodist wife. At age 23, Callahan became the first known Native American woman to publish a novel.
In Wynema: A Child of the Forest (1891), Callahan drew upon her family's experiences and Muscogee traditions to tell the story of a young woman who, like Callahan, is caught between Indian and white cultures, Christianity and Ghost Dance religion. Wynema is a plea for tolerance and for an end to injustice against Native Americans and women.
AMERICAN VOICES
An exhibit at American Writers Museum
American writing is distinctive, diverse, and comes in many forms from across the nation. The 100 authors featured here represent the evolution of American writing. Learn more about each writer on the timeline by turning the panels below their portraits. Explore centuries of writing by pulling, turning, and touching the interactive elements on the counter.
This is not meant to be a list of the greatest or most influential writers. Instead, we present authors and works as part of the American story as it grows and changes. Taken together, this rich literary heritage reflects America in all of its complexity: its energy, hope, conflict, disillusionment, and creativity.