Far from the world he knows, he’ll find a home. Among strangers, he’ll find acceptance. And in the arms of an unexpected man, he’ll find love. Young Billy Strobaw comes West to escape the stigma of his Tory family. In the Dakota Territories, he encounters the Yanube warrior Cut Hand. Billy’s attraction to the other man is as surprising as the Yanube perspective on same-sex love. Unlike Europeans, the Siouan tribe celebrates such unions. Billy and Cut Hand can live as partners and build a life together, which Billy agrees to do. As Billy struggles to acclimate to a very different culture, quickly discovering the Yanube have as much to teach him as he has to impart to them, a larger struggle is brewing. The white man is barreling through the Great Plains, trampling underfoot anyone who stands in his way. As a leader of his people, Cut Hand must decide whether it will be peace or war. In a historical romance taking place against the epic backdrop of the early American West, where a single spark can ignite a powder keg of greed, lust for power, and misunderstanding, one man must find his place in history and his role in the preservation of all he has come to value.

Cut Hand

Fate intervened to lend a hand in his future salvation. One of the families homesteading across the boundary of our land had two sons and a honey-haired daughter. Dog Fox…pardon, Cuthan…fought the boys at least a half a dozen times before they learned to respect him. It was not easy for Cuthan. Indians do not fight in the same manner as white boys, and he was impatient of the boxing lessons I gave him. He preferred rushing in and ending the affair in any manner possible.


We asked our neighbors over for picnics and dinners, and one of them responded…the neighbor named Jacobsen with the honey-haired daughter and two feisty sons. The other neighbor, whose name I do not recall as he did not last long in this country, held obvious prejudices and never set foot through our door.


The shock of finding Otter and Cuthan well educated prompted a request from the Jacobsens to teach their children. Otter and I readily agreed, and friendships budded.


Chapter 114