Firekeeper's Daughter

Daunis wakes to the sound of her mother’s voice and the feeling of her mother applying Chapstick or lipstick to her lips, just like she did to GrandMary. 

When Daunis wakes up fully, her mother tells her that GrandMary has died and that Teddie is back home taking care of things so she can stay with Daunis. Daunis’s liver was lacerated in the car accident, and then further damaged when she jumped Stormy. She had been unconscious for three days and needs to stay in the hospital at the University of Michigan for at least another week. Daunis tells her mother that Uncle David was helping the FBI, and that it seems like his death may have been foul play on Dana Firekeeper’s part.

Teddie returns to the hospital to visit before Ron shows up to fill Daunis in on what has happened with the investigation. Levi has been charged with a slew of offenses, and Mike hasn’t been seen since he left Jamie on the island. Ron tells Daunis that the police found one of Heather’s flip flops in Levi’s room. Daunis tells him that she searched his room before she was kidnapped and there was no flip flop. Daunis thinks that Mike or Grant Edwards planted the shoe in order to frame Levi for her death. Ron informs the women that Stormy hasn’t spoken since he was taken out of the trailer, and he could end up being tried and sit in jail until he speaks. Daunis realizes that Levi and Stormy will sit in jail and Mike will potentially get away with this. Ron also reveals that Mike’s parents seemed genuinely surprised to learn about his involvement. No one can confirm yet that Grant was in on anything, as it wasn’t him who picked Levi up off the ferry the day that they were caught. Lastly, Coach Bobby had been laundering money through the casino through someone who wasn’t filling out the cash deposit forms.

Daunis kicks herself for not questioning Coach Bobby’s nice cars, home renovations, and fancy vacations. When Daunis inquires about the charges pressed against Dana for drugging and kidnapping her, Ron informs her that since she is a tribal member and the trailer was on Indian land, the feds can determine whether or not to press charges; they’re only going to pursue charges for Jamie’s kidnapping. At this news, Daunis tells everyone in the room about how Grant raped her at Shagala and how, when Jamie found out, he told Daunis to tell Ron so the US Attorney’s office could seek justice for her. Suddenly, Daunis has two horrible realizations at once: Grant Edwards was interested in her tribal enrollment date, knowing he could get away with raping her at the hotel on tribal land because the feds wouldn’t bother pursuing the case and the tribal government couldn’t touch him due to his money, status, and power. Daunis also sees how naive Jamie was in his thinking—historically, crimes against Native women are not only not pursued or brought to justice, but they are also completely swept under the rug. When Ron leaves, Daunis’s mother and aunt hug her. She imagines Grant Edwards rolled up into a rug like the men of the other blanket parties she has heard about. When she says “Blanket party,” Teddie nods in agreement. 

Daunis has a vision: She’s visited by a little boy who is the future child, or the child that would have been, of her and Jamie’s. As she is kissing the child’s hand in her imagination, Jamie’s hand appears on top of her own, snapping her out of the vision. Jamie hasn’t seen Daunis since her collapse on Sugar Island 12 days ago. Jamie has been dealing with the investigation, the gravity of what he put Daunis through, and the real danger that he inflicted upon her and her community in the name of the FBI investigation—all of which weigh upon him heavily. For the first time, Jamie realizes he can’t separate the investigation from the real people and real consequences of life once the investigation is over. Daunis listens to Jamie’s tearful apology and does not comfort him because he needs to feel what she has been feeling all along. Daunis encourages Jamie to leave undercover work. Instead, he should seek truth from life by learning about his community and tribe. She tells Jamie that knowing the truth about himself is the only way forward. They profess their love for one another, and Jamie proposes that they now make serious plans to be together. While Daunis loves Jamie and wants to have a life with him, she knows she cannot be with someone who is still searching for themselves. Jamie’s need for her right now is a coping mechanism to fulfill his identity, and it’s unhealthy for Daunis too. Ultimately, Daunis turns Jamie down. She says if there is any hope of them being together, it is in the Someday, not now. When Jamie leaves, Daunis imagines the son they would have, the one that visited her, and how they would name him Waabun, after the Eastern Direction. 

The last chapter picks up with Daunis 10 months after her time in the hospital, at the annual powwow. The tribal politics have been messy since Daunis returned home, as the tribe is torn on voting in a “banishment clause” for members who distribute or do drugs like meth on the reservation. Some members view this clause as an opportunity for corruption, as tribal council could banish members over political disagreement. Others think that banishment does not care for people who are struggling with addiction. The terms finally agreed upon state that banished individuals will remain members, but will forfeit all tribal programs, services, and benefits for up to five years, depending on where they are in recovery. Dana Firekeeper will be the first person to appear at a banishment hearing.

On the first weekend of the powwow, Daunis goes to Sugar Island with Granny June and finds herself in the center ring with Teddie amongst circles and circles of women. She is told the story of the woman who collected pansies and then burned them to let go of her grief over being sexually assaulted. Daunis realizes she is at a healing ceremony for her pain over what Grant Edwards did to her. Every woman is given a pansy and releases it into the fire one by one. Daunis realizes that every woman there has experienced something similar to her. Granny June tells her that every year this happened, Lily said a prayer of thanks that Daunis wasn’t there. Daunis realizes that her friend had been sparing her some of her own pain. Daunis says a prayer for all the girls she knows who weren’t at the fire this year.

At the powwow, many people ask Daunis about Levi, but she doesn’t reveal anything. She was not involved in court proceedings because Ron kept his promise of her being a Confidential Informant. All Daunis knows is that Levi is still sitting in jail until his trial because he is considered a flight risk, and Stormy is sitting in jail for contempt of court because he will not speak in English. Mike is still at large, but there are rumors he is playing on a Swedish hockey league. His parents have divorced, and no one has seen much of Grant. On Sunday of the powwow, Daunis starts her day with a prayer of love, it is the end of her year of mourning for Lily, and she will dance at the powwow for the first time since her Uncle David died. While Daunis is braiding Teddie’s kids’ hair for the dance, she tells them of her plans to go to school in Hawaii this fall in order to study ethnobotany. This program is unique because she will study both modern science and traditional medicine side by side in order to return to Sugar Island and apprentice with the elders in the Traditional Medicine Program. Perry and Pauline worry that college is like the Indian Boarding Schools Teddie and Art have recently told them about. While it breaks Daunis’s heart that the girls have to know these disturbing truths, she knows that knowing the truth is what will make them strong Indigenous women, like their mother.

Daunis wears her jingle dress with her father’s choker, the bracelet from Jamie, the blueberry earrings from her mother, an eagle plume from Teddie, and GrandMary’s red lipstick. When Art takes a photo of her in front of the powwow, she thinks of two unmarked postcards she received this week—one of a lake in Minnesota and the other a photo of The University of Wisconsin’s College of Law with “Someday” written on the back. She knows these are messages from Jamie. Daunis participates in the Jingle Dress dance, which is based off the story of a father whose daughter was sick. The daughter had a vision of a dress that jingled when she danced, and when the daughter wore the dress, she recovered the more she danced until she never stopped dancing. At the end of the day, all the women who are wearing red in their regalia are invited to a special dance for all missing and murdered Indigenous women. Daunis, who is wearing red, enters the arena and dances. As she dances she prays for Lily, Robin, Heather, and herself, for all of the women who were viewed as expendable or invisible. When the dance ends, Daunis is facing the eastern direction.