Sophia Alice Callahan

Sophia Alice Callahan (1 January 1868 – 7 January 1894) was a novelist and teacher of Muscogee heritage. Her novel, Wynema, a Child of the Forest is thought "to be the first novel written by a Native American woman". This may have been "the first novel written in Oklahoma", which was at the time Indian Territory. Callahan wrote in a romantic novel style but she also clearly intended what has been called a "reform novel", identifying many wrongs suffered by Native Americans in United States society. After being discovered in the late 20th century, the novel was reprinted in 1997. It has been the subject of scholarly studies.

Early life and education Sophia Alice Callahan was born in Sulphur Springs, Texas, United States, on January 1, 1868, to a father who was culturally Muscogee and mixed-race, with Creek and European ancestry; and a white mother, daughter of a Methodist missionary. Her father, Samuel Benton Callahan, was one-eighth Muscogee-Creek and enrolled in the tribe. Sophia's mother was Sarah Elizabeth Thornberg. Late in 1893, she moved to the Methodist-sponsored Harrell International Institute in Muskogee. She also published articles in the school journal, Our Brother in Red.

She married Samuel Callahan, editor of the Indian Journal. He was elected to represent the Creek (Muscogee) and Seminole in the Confederate States Congress from Indian Territory and served as an officer in the Confederate States Army. The family had fled from Indian Territory to Sulphur Springs during the American Civil War. Afterward they returned to their home in Okmulgee, Indian Territory, where Samuel Callahan developed a large farm and cattle ranch.

Having become a member of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) in Muskogee, Callahan explored this and other social movements in her novel, Wynema, a Child of the Forest (1891).

Later life Callahan last worked for the Indian Mission Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. She had returned to Wesleyan Female Institute to get a college degree, in order to open her own school in the Creek Nation. However, several other teachers at Harrell had fallen ill during the winter, and she was summoned to return home. After reaching Muskogee, Callahan also fell ill, She had contracted pleurisy and died in Muskogee at the age of 26 on January 7, 1894.