[1] 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.

Sophia Alice Callahan was born in Sulphur Springs, Texas, in 1868,[3] to a father who was culturally Muscogee and mixed-race, with Creek and European ancestry; and a white mother, daughter of a Methodist missionary.

After having studied for nearly a year at the Wesleyan Female Institute in Staunton, Virginia, she was qualified in grammar, arithmetic, physics, geography and history.

Afterward they returned to their home in Okmulgee, Indian Territory,[8] where Samuel Callahan developed a large farm and cattle ranch.

She had returned to Wesleyan Female Institute to get a college degree, in order to open her own school in the Creek Nation.