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 end, Landreth let me go after warning there would be a formal inquest into Bascomb’s death. Even though expected, that was worrisome. No telling what lengths Pindleton would go to see I was hanged for killing a white man. But that was a problem for next week or next month. I had lost valuable time and snow clouds were sill looming over the west although flakes had ceased to fall.


Even so, I walked down to Lawyer Bacon’s office to sign a statement he prepared detailing as much of the recent killing as I could recall. Then I recovered my palomino and prepared to undertake my journey again.


Chapter 51