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

After nearly an hour, the group of roughly thirty men grew quiet and still. Had we been discovered? Then a horseman broke through the forest on the south side of the clearing. Upon discovering who he was, the robbers gathered around him. From where we hid, the lieutenant and I clearly heard his words.


“Landreth’s on your tail, boys. And he’s got a posse and a squad of cavalry with him.” More distressing than the message was the identity of the man. Gus Gilroy was another Gadsby County Deputy Sheriff.


“How close are they?” The question came from a tall man who stood head and shoulders above the rest, close onto six-foot-two. He wore a beat-up satin top hat and a frock coat. He sounded educated.


“Not more’n an hour, likely. I couldn’t shake loose any faster to come warn you.”


“We lost them before, what makes you think they’ll find us this time.”


“Two of them Injuns you hit this morning is tracking for them.”


Chapter 22