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

“And I see you, Grandfather.” I put a full measure of respect in my voice.


He seemed to have aged as he gazed down from his great height, reduced a bit by a slight stoop. But the tragedy of Wounded Knee and the risings that massacre had provoked had taken a toll on us all. I judged he must be somewhere in his mid-fifties.


“I was sorry to learn of Shambling Bear’s fate. But we all share the tragedy of that day.”


Chapter 78