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

“Alan,” Face said, mispronouncing the name a bit. “I’ll be Ethan Alan.”


“You call me Ethan from now on,” he said to Gideon with a somber look on his face. “Let’s all go take a sweat bath.”


I wasn’t about to let a naked Gideon in the okinarewith Face…pardon me, with Ethan. The youngster would be rampant within seconds. Fortunately, Gideon hadn’t discovered the joys and healthful benefits of a good medicine bath, so he declined.


Although the newly christened Ethan detested working the fields, I put him to doing just that. Since the rustling gang had been destroyed, Bird planned on sleeping at the house for the night, and I reasoned the three of us could bathe then. Ethan stopped grumbling so much when Ides and Gabe joined us to work the plants. Rachel Ann remained at the little house with her husband.


Chapter 24