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

I greeted the others, hugging Jane Appleton as though she were blood and pounding my uncles on the back. Jacob looked to have transformed from a stodgy young man into a stogy old one, but Christian was the teasing, daring fellow I’d always known. Crow would not settle for just a shake; he drew me into a bear hug so tight my breath deserted me.


Ma turned practical and got the party moving toward Teacher’s Mead, which hovered at the base of three hills about two miles to the north. These mounds dwarfed the hill behind my house at Turtle Crick, and the middle, taller of the three was hollow inside, serving as the family’s cold room due to a clear, cold spring that rose inside it. It was also the place where most of the clan’s gold and silver lay buried.


Chapter 43