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

Once we reached the house, I ate ravenously, emptying the stewpot on the stove. He nibbled as he watched me obliquely, often reaching out to touch my hand or arm. Once my empty belly was filled, I sent a homing pigeon to Winter Bird. He watched curiously but asked no questions.


Then I sat opposite Ethan at the kitchen table and covered his hands with mine. “I want us to go to my friend Touch the Clouds on the Cheyenne River Reservation, and ask him to marry us before the council. Is that acceptable to you?”


His eyes lit up before his face did as he struggled to contain himself. He nodded as if a momentous decision had just been made. “That would please me. But why not just go back to Pine Ridge?”


“I do not know Red Cloud that well. Touch the Clouds accepted ‘s and my pledge, and I want yours and mine to be just as powerful.”


“I will go anywhere with you, Medicine Hair. I will be yours forever.”


Chapter 73