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

Restless, I rose and exposed myself to the chilled wind to stroll the crick bank. But did not Leviticus also refer to an act, not a person? I turned back to the shelter of the draw and picked up the Bible again to search for the meaning of marriage. I found numerous passages but learned little. Adam and Eve were married, but who performed the ritual? God, himself? Adam had one wife, but there something about a second, perhaps sinister one called Lilith. King David had many wives, and his grandson, Rehoboam had wives numbering eighteen and concubines of three score. Who were these concubines? Wives? Whores? Accepted or abominations?


Chapter 72