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

My bruises were healing, which was both good and bad. I wanted them gone. Bacon wanted them apparent to the naked eye in the event we ended up in court defending my freedom and my life. I spent the time working in my fields in between summonses from Bacon.


When a message came from Bacon by means of the carrier pigeon link I had with Gideon telling me to be at the county courthouse on Friday morning, he cautioned me that we still had no clear idea of how the wind was blowing. I took time to notice that date would fall on thirteenth of May. Friday the thirteenth is held in great suspicion by the Americans. And while I held no such fear of a specific date, this one could well portend disaster.


Chapter 101