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

Gideon raised his voice again. “Besides, it wasn’t John Strobaw who shot Sheriff Landreth. It was me. All I saw was a match lighting a fuse, so I knew we were under attack. I shot the man with the dynamite just as he threw the stick.”


“Dynamite?” someone called from the group.


“What do you think tore up the porch to this rock house? Dynamite. That other hole over there was caused when John shot the man lighting a fuse. That one didn’t manage to throw his stick. Somebody oughta be able to identify him by his boots.”


“And the other man? Brawley? Who shot him?”


“I did,” I said. When he and two others retreated to take cover beside the barn and opened up on Captain Haleworthy and Private Wales.”


Another voice from the crowd spoke up. “What happened then?”


Chapter 96