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

In the meanwhile, I puzzled over who could have claimed to be me by placing a mark on a document witnessed by a third party. Clearly it had to be a tribesman. At least, Philby Parson’s confusion when examining Ethan and me led to that conclusion. Despite his domicile at the Pindleton and Hume Cattle Company, the surveyor had struck me as a decent man. Of course, appearances can be deceiving, but I liked the fact he did not try to dissemble. He merely acknowledged he could not identify either of us as the so-called signatory.


Chapter 48