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

He only deviated from the purpose of his visit once to ask about the intent of the bellows he was working at the time. “I know it makes the flames hotter, but does it have any other purpose?”


Without pausing in my labor, I told him the air helped stir the soot from the charcoal feeding the flames so that it mixed with the iron as I kneaded and molded it. “Gives the exterior a harder casing. The iron inside is softer than on the outside because of it.”


Then he resumed his personal questions, which at this point seem to be directed toward my ancestry more than anything else. He expressed amazement at my depth of knowledge about my forebears, but I did not confess to reading Billy Strobaw’s journal. I suspected he would have sacrificed an arm to possess that now-destroyed tome.


Eventually, he collected his discarded coat, thanked me for the interview, and made ready to take his leave. Just as he walked out the door, he asked if he could speak to me again later.


Chapter 76