In 1866, with the country barely recovered from the Civil War, new war breaks out on the western frontier--a clash of cultures between a young, ambitious nation and the Native tribes who have lived on the land for centuries. 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, seeks 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. (Henry Holt & Co.)

Michael Punke is the author of several books including The Revenant, a #1 New York Times bestseller and basis for the Academy Award–winning film. In his diverse professional career, Punke has served as the US ambassador to the World Trade Organization in Geneva, history correspondent for the Montana Quarterly, and an adjunct professor at the University of Montana. As a high school and college student, he worked summers as a living history interpreter at Fort Laramie National Historic Site in Wyoming. He lives with his family in Montana and is an avid outdoorsman.

Michael Hampton has worked with Appian Way productions for nearly ten years and serves as Vice President of production. Since its launch, Appian Way has released a diverse slate of content, including “The Right Stuff,” “Grant,” Alejandro Iñárritu’s three-time Academy Award and Golden Globe winner “The Revenant,” Martin Scorsese’s Academy Award- and Golden Globe- nominated “The Wolf of Wall Street” and Academy Award-nominated and Golden Globe-winning “The Aviator,” along with “Shutter Island,” Scott Cooper’s “Out of the Furnace” and George Clooney’s Golden Globe-nominated “The Ides of March.” The company has also put forth strong efforts to gain headway in the documentary world, especially as it pertains to shedding like on progressive environmental change producing movies “Virunga,” “Cowspiracy,” “Sea of Shadows,” “Ice on Fire,” and “And We Go Green.”

Michael Punke discusses "Ridgeline" with Michael Hampton