Meet Daunis Fontaine. Daunis is mixed race Ojibwe/White. She lives in Sault St. Marie, Michigan, has just finished high school, and has suffered the loss of a beloved uncle and her best friend, both deaths tied to meth addiction in her community. Her father was a hockey star from the Sugar Island Ojibwe reservation but because her parents were young and unmarried (and because her White mother’s parents forbade it), Daunis was not added to the tribal roll. But Danis is undoubtedly Ojibwe. Her father died when she was young but she has a strong relationship to her paternal aunt who teaches her the traditional ways and she is a beloved member of the Ojibwe tribal community. Her devotion to community is a central theme in the book, as is the complexity of identity. There’s so much more I could say about Daunis — she’s a hockey star, and a chemistry buff; both of these are central to the main action of the book.

After her best friend is killed, Daunis is recruited into an FBI drug investigation (it sounds far fetched but it works, trust me). As part of the investigation, Daunis becomes involved with one of the agents who has gone undercover as a high school hockey player (a fun romantic twist that also works). The investigation is the central action of the last half of the book. Boulley expertly finesses the story line weaving in Indigenous knowledge, historical and political context, and just enough of a mystery/thriller vibe to keep the reader hooked (the book is long — close to 500 pages). And through it all, Daunis is the glue that holds it all together. She’s a hero you won’t soon forget.

My favorite aspect of the book was the seamless way the author weaves Indigenous history and ways of being & knowing with the main action of the novel. It never feels strained or out of place. Also seamlessly woven into the text is the native language of the Ojibwe, anishinaabemowin. I bookmarked this website so I could look up the words https://ojibwe.lib.umn.edu/. I also highly recommend listening to some of the book as an audio book to hear the language spoken fluently. The novel is definitely place-based. I found myself google image searching Sugar Island late at night while I was reading so I could more easily picture Boulley’s stunning descriptions. Finally, the book engages with the devastating effects of settler colonialism in the form of drug addiction. I will confess that I wanted a simplistic ending that only implicated the White community members of Sault St. Marie/Sugar Island. Boulley doesn’t give us simple and we have to grapple with the complexity of the situation. Luckily, we have Daunis Firekeeper as our guide.

Here is an interview with author Angeline Boulley (Chippewa Tribe of Sault Ste. Marie).

And here’s a great review by Debbie Reece (Nambé Pueblo) on the AICL blog.

Firekeeper’s Daughter is a young adult novel. It engages with complex themes and there are multiple scenes depicting violence. They are done sensitively and are never gratuitous but would be troubling to readers younger than 14.