Ridgeline : a novel

"In December 1866, tensions were rising in Wyoming, between the Native American tribes who had lived on the land for generations and the settlers who would destroy their home. Crazy Horse and his fellow Lakota hunters had been watching for months as Colonel Carrington and his army set up camp on one of the most crucial swaths of hunting ground in hundreds of miles, and began to build forts. More disconcertingly, the settlers had brought women and children, which meant they planned to stay. As the Lakota and neighboring tribes set forth with repeated attacks to discourage the settlers, Captain William J. Fetterman, anxious and arrogant, claimed that he could take offense and rid the area of Native American people with only a small army of 80 men. And he would--unless Crazy Horse could find a way to lure the army to their doom. A story of protection and betrayal, of courage, wit, and perseverance against unfathomable odds, Ridgeline grapples with essential questions about who owns land: those who are born on it, or those who would kill to claim it"--

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Book

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x, 371 pages :

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Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
Fiction	F/PUNKE/RIDGE	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

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Summary

The thrilling, long-awaited return of the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Revenant

Winner of the 2022 Spur Award for Best Western Historical Novel
Winner of the 2021 David. J. Langum, Sr. Prize in American Historical Fiction
2021 Montana Book Award Honoree

In 1866, with the country barely recovered from the Civil War, new war breaks out on the western frontier--a clash of cultures between the Native tribes who have lived on the land for centuries and a young, ambitious nation. Colonel Henry Carrington arrives in Wyoming's Powder River Valley to lead the US Army in defending the opening of a new road for gold miners and settlers. Carrington intends to build a fort in the middle of critical hunting grounds, the home of the Lakota. Red Cloud, one of the Lakota's most respected chiefs, and Crazy Horse, a young but visionary warrior, understand full well the implications of this invasion. For the Lakota, the stakes are their home, their culture, their lives.

As fall bleeds into winter, Crazy Horse leads a small war party that confronts Colonel Carrington's soldiers with near constant attacks. Red Cloud, meanwhile, wants to build the tribal alliances that he knows will be necessary to defeat the soldiers. Colonel Carrington seeks to hold together a US Army beset with internal discord. Carrington's officers are skeptical of their commander's strategy, none more so than Lieutenant George Washington Grummond, who longs to fight a foe he dismisses as inferior in all ways. The rank-and-file soldiers, meanwhile, are still divided by the residue of civil war, and tempted to desertion by the nearby goldfields.

Throughout this taut saga--based on real people and events--Michael Punke brings the same immersive, vivid storytelling and historical insight that made his breakthrough debut so memorable. As Ridgeline builds to its epic conclusion, it grapples with essential questions of conquest and justice that still echo today.

Author Notes

Michael Punke was born on December 7, 1964 in Torrington, Wyoming. He attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, then transferred to George Washington University where he earned a degree in International Affairs. He later received his doctorate from Cornell Law School and served as Editor-in-Chief of the Cornell International Law Journal..

Punke serves as the U.S. Ambassador to the World Trade Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. He has also served on the White House National Security Council staff. He was formerly the history correspondent for Montana Quarterly. At the University of Montana, he was an adjunct professor.

Punke has written several books. His work includes Fire and Brimstone: The North Butte Mine Disaster of 1917; Last Stand: George Bird Grinnell, the Battle to Save the Buffalo, and the Birth of the New West; and his most famous book, The Revenant: A Novel of Revenge (2002).

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Punke (The Revenant) again brings the Old West to life in this engrossing account of the violence and horror of a Wyoming massacre that presaged the Battle of Little Big Horn. On Dec. 21, 1866, Lakota war leader Crazy Horse lured 80 U.S. soldiers into a trap, slaughtering all of them. A prologue set on the fateful day teases what's to come, with Crazy Horse's advance unit of decoys surprised by the cavalry soldiers' new rapid-fire rifles. Punke then shifts back five months, as Crazy Horse becomes aware of an ominous development. The American military has decided to establish a new outpost, Fort Phil Kearney, to deter Native American attacks on those traveling to and from Montana's gold fields. Gen. William Sherman believes construction of the fort is permitted under a treaty, despite scout Jim Bridger's explanation that the agreement had been entered into with chiefs who didn't represent the affected Native American bands. Once Crazy Horse spots white women and children at the fort, he realizes the soldiers are not there simply for defensive purposes, and that settlement of the area is in the works. The tensions build, culminating in Crazy Horse's plan to take advantage of the American military's discounting of the alliance of tribes and their ability to strategize. Punke makes the battle vivid, and draws deep characterizations of individuals on both sides, exploring Crazy Horse's fear of impending change, U.S. soldiers' indifference to fighting, and a captain's lament of the breakdown of discipline and reason within the battalion's leadership. This is historical fiction at its best. (June)

Booklist Review

Punke is brilliant: an author (The Revenant, 2002), attorney, professor, former U.S. ambassador, and current vice president at Amazon Web Services. Ridgeline, a novelization of the 1866 Fetterman Fight, in which a confederacy of Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes fought a detachment of U.S. soldiers from Fort Phil Kearny in the Dakota Territory (present-day Wyoming), confirms his mastery as a writer. A foreboding sense of ruin and sadness clings to each page. Deftly switching between character perspectives provides a multifaceted account of the weeks leading up to the fight. He loosely fictionalizes army officers, enlisted men, an officer's wife, two civilian scouts, and Lakota leaders (including Red Cloud, Crazy Horse, and a transgender prophet). The day of the battle is described in unflinching detail. The devastation feels real. Punke deeply respects Native American tribal history, and explains how an uneasy tribal allegiance led to battle victory. In short time, however, the war was lost. Even in a novel so bleak, Punke carves out poignant moments (conversations between the two civilian scouts, the camaraderie between the young Lakota warriors). Ridgeline transcends genre categorization--any sophisticated reader would appreciate this novel.