Firekeeper's Daughter

Daunis Fontaine, an athlete and star student, is planning to defer her admission to the University of Michigan in favor of staying in her hometown of Sault Sainte Marie for the upcoming school year and attending Lake State, the local college. Daunis decides this after her mother’s side of the family has two tragedies during her senior year: the death of her uncle followed by her grandmother’s stroke. Daunis knows her mother will be happy to have her sticking around, but she worries about telling her GrandMary, her mother’s mother, who has had a “plan” for Daunis that Daunis has followed so far, “Daunis Fontaine MD.” Daunis wants to fulfill the dreams her grandparents had for her mother, dreams that were shattered when her mother got pregnant with Daunis at age 16. The two sides of Daunis’s family, the French fur trading descendants on her mother’s side and her Ojibwe Father’s Firekeeper’s side, are openly hostile toward one another. Daunis has had to learn when it is time to be a “Fontaine” and when it is time to be a “Firekeeper.” Daunis sees her grandmothers—her GrandMary and her Gramma Pearl—as the teachers of her life, and yet she believes she can only practice one of their types of wisdom at a time.