S. Alice Callahan's Wynema: A Child of the Forest (1891) is probably the first novel published by an American Indian woman. Callahan's parents were Samuel Benton Callahan, who was one - eighth Creek and seven - eighths white, and Sarah Elizabeth Callahan, née Thornberg or McAllester (the names vary in different sources), a white woman. A captain in the First Creek Confederate Regiment, Samuel Callahan was a delegate to the Confederate Congress at Richmond, Virginia, representing the Creek and Seminole nations jointly. After the Civil War he joined his wife and children in Texas, where they had settled. Sophia Alice Callahan was born on 1 January 1868 in Sulphur Springs, Texas. In 1885 the family moved to the Creek Nation in Indian Territory (today Oklahoma), where Samuel held various positions with the tribe; farmed and ranched near Okmulgee; edited the Indian Journal in Muskogee; and served as superintendent of Wealaka...