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

“So, you’re expecting trouble from ranchers on the way back to Pine Ridge?”


“That’s it, Sheriff,” I said. “You needed Bird’s and my help in breaking up that gang of rustlers, and now we need your help with another bunch.”


“Don’t seem like they intend to do any rustling.”


“What’s the difference if they steal, kill, or run our cattle to death? The result’s the same.”


“My jurisdiction don’t go all the way to Pine Ridge.”


“We can use your help for as far as it goes.”


During the half hour exchange, Iron Head and Dancing Fox gathered a quiet dignity around them and sat silent and impassive.”


When Landreth learned there were a dozen more Indians at Turtle Crick, he let out a squawk. “You got better’n a dozen armed warriors roaming the countryside? How you know they ain’t gonna cut loose and start raiding?”


I looked him squarely in the eye. “The war’s over, remember.”


Chapter 29