Wynema Harjo is an idealistic young Muscogee woman who finds meaning as a teacher for the young people of her village. After the Wounded Knee Massacre and the subsequent Ghost Dance movement, Wynema feels a need to take further action, and she and her husband adopt a Lakota girl. As the years roll by and injustices mount, Wynema and a fellow teacher, Genevieve Weir, consider the repercussions of the oppression that surrounds them―and wonder how their society might eventually be improved.
The first known work of fiction by a woman of Native American descent, Callahan’s “reform novel” provides a beautiful portrait of her tribe’s culture and offers a frank argument against American military behavior and for women’s suffrage. Falling into obscurity following its publication in 1891, Wynema: A Child of the Forest is essential for reevaluation.
Revised edition: Previously published as Wynema: A Child of the Forest, this edition of Wynema: A Child of the Forest (AmazonClassics Edition) includes editorial revisions.
Sophia Alice Callahan (1868–1894) was born to parents of Muscogee and European ancestry in Sulphur Springs, Texas. At the Wesleyan Female Institute in Virginia, Callahan studied history, languages, the arts, science, geography, mathematics, and religion. She subsequently taught at Wealaka Mission School and Harrell Institute in Indian Territory, now Oklahoma. Callahan was also editor of the Methodist Native American journal Our Brother in Red and, in 1891, published her only novel, Wymena: A Child of the Forest.