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

“What’s going on here, Landreth?”


The sheriff and the deputy kicking me halfway to death froze. The other one lay huddled in the corner holding his crotch and mewling. I couldn’t get up much curiosity over who was speaking. I was trying too hard to simply breathe and hold onto consciousness.


My eyesight stabilized sufficiently to make out the portly figure of the county prosecutor flanked by Lawyer Bacon and Gideon Haleworthy. Gideon jerked open the door to the jail cell and rushed to me.


“You get outta my jail. You got no authority here.” Landreth’s voice rose alarmingly.


My brother-in-law shot a finger in my direction. “I’m going, but I’m taking him with me.”


“Now hold on there, Charlie,” Romo Kilpatrick yelled. “You come on outta that cell. We’ll go to the office and talk this over. Send one of your deputies for Doc Adler.”


Chapter 91