Firekeeper’s Daughter: Chapter 26 Summary & Analysis

Anxiously worrying about what Auntie might know about the investigation, Daunis sits down. She burns with shame as Auntie says she didn’t want to do “this” here, but Daunis has been avoiding her. Daunis opens an envelope with two photos in it, one of her, Levi, and Dad skating, and another of Dad holding her as a baby. Next, Daunis pulls out an application for tribal enrollment and a notarized letter from Mom stating that her parents wouldn’t let her put Dad on Daunis’s birth certificate. There’s a family tree and affidavits from family members, insisting Daunis is Levi Firekeeper’s daughter. Daunis has a week to submit the paperwork (until her 19th birthday), and Auntie says she and Daunis will have to take blood tests.

Daunis has wanted this for a long time. Being Anishinaabe and being enrolled aren’t the same thing—but being enrolled won’t change Daunis’s identity. She says she doesn’t need a card to define her, but Auntie says this is a gift from Dad. Granny June tells Daunis to think about her children and grandchildren—people must think seven generations ahead when making big choices. Daunis also thinks about the investigation. Maybe Daunis should be part of the investigation because unlike Jamie and Ron, she’s thinking seven generations ahead. She agrees to enroll. Auntie notes that Daunis needs three affidavits from non-related Elders. Just then, Seeney Nimkee hands Daunis an affidavit, followed by Granny June, Minnie, and 23 other elders.

Daunis laughs and cries on her way to catch the Booster Bus, where a woman who knows her accepts her check and offers her a beer. Daunis ignores Grant waving her over and sits next to Ron instead. Bus passengers are mostly Zhaaganaash; Nishnaabs are following in campers. Ron learns why when the sound system blasts “Don’t Stop Believin’” and women begin jumping and screaming. One even flashes a truck driver. Daunis murmurs that these same folks say “Indians can’t hold their liquor.”

Daunis replays the Elders handing her the affidavits as she tries to read The Sound and the Fury. Ron finally comments that she hasn’t turned a page in 20 minutes. When Daunis says she barely understands what’s going on, Ron helps her figure out what the book is actually about: time, rather than the individual events. This almost makes Daunis cry because Ron reminds her so much of Uncle David. She fears that eventually, she’ll stop thinking about David and Lily every day. She knows this is just because “memories are fickle” and can fade, but she’s afraid of going on without Lily.

Daunis feels like she’s in a fog until Grant slides in next to her at the game. Hearing a Zhaaganaash bring up per cap, Daunis considers leaving so she doesn’t have to listen to their bigotry—but she’s uninterested in crawling over either Grant or Ron. So, she sits and listens to people discuss a classmate of Daunis’s, Ryan, enrolling in the Tribe. Ryan is notorious for riling up Nishnaabs, but apparently his dad is Joey Nodin. One man in the conversation, a lawyer, crows that as part of his payment for helping Ryan enroll, he gets a percentage of Ryan’s per-cap earnings for a decade. Ron pats Daunis’s arm, and she realizes she’s clenching her fists. Daunis thinks of Lily, who couldn’t enroll because her grandpa is from Canada—her blood wasn’t pure enough.

After the game, Ron quietly tells Daunis that he told Jamie to slow down the whole boyfriend-girlfriend thing. He says that new field agents sometimes let their emotions get the better of them, and he could tell on Sunday that either Jamie or Daunis wasn’t acting.