A love between two very different men is put to the test. John Strobaw, a young mixed-blood, grows up in the relative security of a family farm after the Civil War. His mother raises her family as Americans, but his foster brother, Matthew Brandt feels his red blood more keenly and leaves to ride with Crazy Horse. John doesn’t understand the longing he feels for his absent companion until he has his first sexual experience with a man and he only thinks of Matthew. After the murder of Crazy Horse, Matthew makes his way back home. John fights hard against a growing lust for Matthew, but when he ultimately succumbs, he is lost to this handsome, dusky warrior. Just when the future looks bright, another suitor appears -- a handsome Cheyenne army scout, and trouble looms on the horizon.

Echoes of the Flute

They fed me like they gave me drink, slowly and sparingly. Then Otter lent me his arm to the top of the hill behind the cabin where we sat and looked south. I almost believed I could see all the way to Yanube City and the fort seven miles distant. I couldn’t, of course. I’d lost that ability when I folded my eagle’s wings and plunged to Mother Earth.   8


Otter agreed my Spirit Dream foretold a bloody conflagration yet to come, but the joy and dancing I described puzzled him. He looked out over the prairie beyond Turtle Crick for a long moment without speaking.


“I know of only one thing such as what you speak. But it was in the past, so it cannot be a part of your forward-looking vision.”


Chapter 21