Wynema
Subtitle: A Child of the Forest
Contributors: A. Lavonne Brown Ruoff (Editor, Introduction)
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Published: June 1, 1997
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 120
ISBN-13: 9780803214606
Subjects: 19th century fiction; Modern fiction; Novels, other prose & writers: 19th century; Fiction - General; 19th Century American Novel And Short Story; Social Science; American English; Sociology; North America; USA; General; Fiction / Literary; Creek Indians; Ethnic Studies - Native American Studies; Fiction; Indian women
Description: Originally published in 1891, Wynema is the first novel known to have been written by a woman of American Indian descent. Set against the sweeping and often tragic cultural changes that affected southeastern native peoples during the late nineteenth century, it tells the story of a lifelong friendship between two women from vastly different backgrounds - Wynema Harjo, a Muscogee Indian, and Genevieve Weir, a Methodist teacher from a genteel Southern family.

Both are firm believers in women's rights and Indian reform; both struggle to overcome prejudice and correct injustices between sexes and races. Callahan uses the conventional traditions of a sentimental domestic romance to deliver an elegant plea for tolerance, equality, and reform.