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 that, he and Gideon, accompanied by the army surgeon and the big deputy, examined the bodies and took note of their surroundings while the rest of Landreth’s men detained me on the stone cabin’s porch. The two troopers discretely remained out of the way, but I noticed they had pulled their carbines while no one was watching.


The sheriff and his party entered the horse barn and stayed for a long while. When they emerged, Landreth unholstered his pistol and started for the cabin. Gideon caught the man’s arm and turned him around as they engaged in what was obviously a heated discussion. By reading the body gestures of the four men, it appeared to me that the sheriff had only grudging support from his own deputy in what he was expounding. Which was, likely shooting me in the head and putting finish to the matter. There was a spare handgun hidden in a box on the fireplace mantle, but I’d never make it that far.


Chapter 90