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

Horses knew nothing about farming and showed the same reluctance most of his kinsmen held for scratching in the dirt, so I put him in charge of caretaking the riding and trace stock, including Yellow Thunder, the palomino gelding I’d ridden home from Pine Ridge, and Wind Rider, the flea-bitten gray that had been Matthew’s horse. Bird had rescued the animal at Wounded Knee and ridden him ever since. When either Bird or I came in from the range, Horses immediately took care of rubbing down and feeding our animals.


I learned little more about this strange young man except to become convinced he shot the white officer in the forlorn hope it would raise his standing with his kinsmen. Instead, the clumsy way he committed the act left him as estranged as before. I wondered what the future held for Plenty Horses and considered asking him to remain with us on the farm. That thought evaporated the day my brother-in-law rode in for a visit to his family.


Chapter 13