Firekeeper's Daughter

Part 1, Chapters 1-6

Reading Check

1. The University of Michigan (Chapter 1)

2. To buy alcohol for the party (Chapter 4)

3. Cherokee (Chapter 6)

Short Answer

1. The two sides of Daunis’s family are openly hostile to one another. On one side of her family (her father’s), she is a descendant of Ojibwe Firekeepers; on the other (her mother’s side), she is a descendant of French fur traders. Daunis must “code switch” to assimilate to both cultures at different times. When she is being a “Fontaine,” she’s navigating European culture; when she’s being a “Firekeeper,” she is navigating Indigenous culture. (Part 1, Chapters 1-6)

Part 1, Chapters 7-13

Reading Check

1. Because she is in mourning her uncle’s death (Chapter 8)

2. Custer Died for Your Sins by Vine Deloria Jr. (Chapter 9)

3. Tobacco (Chapter 10)

Short Answer

1. When Daunis’s mother was 16, her father – a poor Ojibwe young man from the reservation on Sugar Island – impregnated her. Daunis’s mother’s family was prejudiced toward Indigenous people, and therefore never accepted Daunis’s father as one of the family. In fact, Daunis’s grandfather (her mother’s father) was the mayor of Sault Set.