Firekeeper's Daughter

Lily, Daunis’s best friend since sixth grade, picks her up for their summer job at the Niibing Program—a summer recreational program for kids. Lily is also giving her Granny June a ride to vote in the Tribal Election. Lily is part Ojibwe, like Daunis, but presents as native in all the ways that Daunis doesn’t. Daunis is called a “Ghost” and “that washed-out sister of Levi’s” (14). (Levi is her half-brother, who is Native on both sides of his family tree.) Lily’s Ojibwe family kept her out of the sun in the summer so her skin wouldn’t get any darker. Both girls struggle with appearances and their heritage but in different ways—Daunis isn’t Native enough and Lily is too much. Lily’s Granny June is a sharp and funny older woman who makes both girls laugh with her stories of the old days and her critiques of Tribal Council. Lily and Daunis cannot vote in the Tribal Council election because they are descendants—not enrolled members—of the Sugar Island Ojibwe tribe. Chapter 2 also reveals that Daunis’s ex-boyfriend is now a tribal cop, and that Lily has some drama with her ex, with whom she remains in an on-and-off relationship. 

When Lily takes her group skating at the end of the camp day, Daunis sees her half-brother Levi on the ice. Levi is a part of the Sault Sainte Marie Superiors, an elite Junior A hockey team. Levi is what Daunis calls a “hockey god.” The Supes, the nickname of the hockey team, skate with the kids from the summer camp on Fridays, which is where Daunis meets their newest teammate—Jamie Johnson, a member of the Cherokee nation and an upcoming high school senior. Jamie has already garnered a lot of attention for being handsome, a great hockey player, and Native. Daunis, however, seems ready to undercut any of his perceived charm as she is jaded by her last boyfriend. Daunis learns that Jamie’s uncle is taking her uncle’s position as the high school science teacher. Based on how Daunis talks about his death, it seems that Daunis’s uncle’s death may have been drug or alcohol related. Daunis’s Ojibwe Aunt Teddie shows up to ask Daunis if she can watch her daughters Perry and Pauline. Teddie is The Tribal Health Director and Daunis completely idolizes her. Teddie has to deal with an issue involving pro-immunization shirts that feature an owl, which in Ojibwe culture is a symbol for death. Jamie is unaware of this, which makes Daunis wonder if Cherokee have a different teaching or if Jamie doesn’t know his culture.

Lily teases Daunis for chatting with Jamie, saying it’s too bad that Jamie has a girlfriend at home. Daunis remarks that “hockey world” and “regular world” should stay separate anyways. Lily’s ex-boyfriend Travis shows up at the rink and Daunis keeps him from talking to Lily. It’s clear that Travis has undergone some kind of extreme change due to drug use, and Daunis is worried about what kind of effect this might have on Lily if they keep getting back together and breaking up again. Before parting ways, Lily and Daunis talk about the party they are going to throw at her GrandMary’s empty house to celebrate both of their enrollments in Lake State for the upcoming semester. 

After the work day is over, Daunis drives her cousins Pauline and Perry back to their house, where she spends the night watching the girls so Teddie and her husband Art can have a little private downtime. Daunis’s Auntie Teddie and Uncle Art live in a house on Sugar Island. While she’s at Teddie’s house, Daunis gets a text from Jamie asking if it’s okay for him to come to the party that she and Lily are throwing tomorrow night. While Daunis and Lily are the ones throwing the party, Daunis invited Levi so he could get them alcohol, and this is how Jamie knows about the party. Daunis tells Jamie it’s okay. At the house, Daunis tells Teddie and Art about Jamie’s uncle being the new science teacher, and while Art is sympathetic, Teddie tells Daunis that that’s how life moves, forward. Daunis reflects on Jamie’s comment about not knowing his family because he’s moved around so much. Daunis has lived in the same place, the Sault, since she was three months old and her Firekeeper family is one of the oldest on Sugar Island, just like her Fontaine side were some of the first original fur traders in the area.

In the middle of the night, Daunis wakes up to Teddie talking on the phone about a “blanket party,” which is when a man has done something bad to a woman and her female cousins take him in the woods, rolled in a blanket, and beat him up. Daunis asks Teddie is she can go with her out to the woods and Teddie says no. Daunis still pushes, wanting to go, until Teddie snaps at her for treating the blanket party like it is something fun and exciting when it is scary and messy. Daunis is taken aback when Teddie makes a comment about how Daunis should just live her nice life. 

Daunis wakes up with Perry and Pauline. She makes them breakfast and gets them ready for the day before Teddie and Art come downstairs. Before Daunis can leave, Teddie uncharacteristically gives Daunis a long hug and whispers in her ear “Nine gidyan,” which means “you have my heart.” At GrandMary’s house, Lily is upset that Daunis has included Levi and his friends because Levi is a “hockey god” and she wants the party to just be about her and Daunis. Daunis comforts Lily and explains how Levi was only invited in order to get them beer. Levi is a few months younger than Daunis, but he is legal in Canada and she isn’t. Lily argues that Daunis “bitches” about “Hockey World” and then invited the king of hockey and all his friends. Daunis starts drinking grappa from her grandparents’ liquor cabinet straight from the bottle. When Jamie shows up, she gives him a tour of the house while some girl she doesn’t know but calls an “Anglerfish”—a term she uses for the hockey girlfriends (parasitic bottom feeders)—tags along. Eventually Jamie and Daunis lose the “Anglerfish” and talk alone. Daunis notes Jamie’s thoughtful and kind questions, and she comments on his French speaking before Levi interrupts them and asks her to be Jamie’s ambassador. The ambassador for the new hot hockey star is coveted amongst all the girls, and Daunis first turns the offer down. The ambassador’s responsibility is to show the new person around. Levi says that Daunis is a perfect fit because it will keep the “Anglerfish” girls away from Jamie. Levi also tells her that it would be great for her and Jamie to go running together since Daunis is a daily runner. Daunis feels like she is being set up, but she agrees to it. 

Daunis takes Jamie on her regular running route, past Lake State—where her last name is displayed on the new dorm (Fontaine Hall)—and along St. Mary’s River. Jamie is very inquisitive about Daunis’s life and family, yet when she asks him questions he is hesitant to open up to her. Jamie asks Daunis about what happened to all the Anishnabeeg (The Original People), and Daunis wonders if he really wants to know about the tribes’ history. Daunis instead tells Jamie that it’s a story for another time. Jamie inquires more deeply about Daunis’s recent losses, which she interprets as his kind nature and also an indicator that Jamie may to be familiar with loss. The next day, Jamie and Daunis go to the gym together. On the treadmills, Jamie reveals a little more of his past and life—that his father is Cherokee, his parents are split up, and he’s moved around a lot. Daunis takes comfort in Jamie’s story because it sounds similar to hers.

After the gym, Jamie gives Daunis a ride to see her GrandMary because it is raining. He waits outside for her and gives her a ride home when she’s done. Daunis broaches the subject of Jamie’s girlfriend for the first time while they’re in the car. Jamie tells Daunis that Jen, his girlfriend, is a source of stability in all the changes and chaos of life. This causes Daunis to think about the last time her life felt secure—she thinks back to Christmas, before her Uncle David died, before he started acting strangely, before he went missing. After a few days of being together, Daunis is already finding it difficult to keep “hockey world” and “real world” separate. Her growing closeness to Jamie is both unexpected and confusing to her. When Jamie inquires about Daunis’s tribal status, she explains that her Fontaine grandparents kept her father’s name off of her birth certificate so she cannot enroll as a tribal member, which was an act meant to hurt and exclude her father. Jamie joins Daunis on her next visit to GrandMary. He greets her in French, and Daunis wonders, again, who Jamie really is.