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

After remaining overnight—sleeping wherever they could find a horizontal space—the column decamped for the fort early the next morning. By the time we saw the last of them in a long single file on the way south, our food stores were well depleted, but I calculated the melt soon would be upon us. We’d be all right if we gave up a meal a day. And we had both endured greater sacrifices than that.


Snowmelt was barely underway before Ethan and I strapped on snowshoes and ventured a trip to the Tiller farm. I not only wanted reassurance of Libby’s and the baby’s health, I also wished to know how my closest friend was doing. Gideon had mentioned before leaving for the fort that Andre had been ailing.


Chapter 65