Thirty-two-year-old mixed blood John Strobaw, known to the Sioux as Medicine Hair, returns to his Turtle Crick Farm after a six-year exile on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Grief-stricken at the loss of his mate and lover Matthew Brand, known as Shambling Bear, at the Battle of Wounded Knee, he struggles to become a farmer again while fighting an internal battle to let go of the past and face his future. Will that future be with his best friend Winter Bird or with Pretty Face, an outrageous flirt who hasn’t yet decided who he is?<br><br>But before he can come to grips with this, John faces several battles. Will his former friends and neighbors accept him now the Indian War has come to an end? Can John forgive those same friends and neighbors after the murderous ambush of the Sioux by the 7th Cavalry at Wounded Knee? Or survive the hostility of an Indian-hating sheriff named Charles Landreth and protect himself against the mindless fear and loathing for Two Spirits, men who love men?

Wastelakapi…Beloved

The next few weeks were a busy time. Bird and I saw little of the rest of the family as we worked the cattle and trained the dogs. Rachel Ann kept house for us, saw to the boys’ education, and worked in the fields, sometimes just she and the children and sometimes with Andre helping out. Gabe took over the care and feeding of the pigeons in the barn’s cote.


The pigeons had been Matthew’s idea originally, and over the years the birds had kept the family at the Mead up to date on news from Turtle Crick. This method had been our “telephone” or “talking telegraph” before Mr. Bell had invented the thing. The last time I saw him, Gideon informed me they were working on a telephone apparatus to link New York City and Chicago sometime next year.


Chapter 11