Chapter 2 Summary: Daunis Chooses Lake Superior State University

⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.

Summary

The chapter opens with Lily picking up Daunis and Granny June. Daunis has just told her mother and grandmother that she will not attend the University of Michigan; instead she will stay home and enroll at Lake Superior State University. Granny June offers a cryptic metaphor about boats being meant for the river or the ocean. On the drive, they pass a defaced billboard urging tribal members to vote in the Tribal Council election. Granny June derides the council and jokes about wanting them as pallbearers so they can let her down one last time. Lily asks if Daunis will invite a tribal police officer to their party, and Daunis declines. At Chi Mukwa Arena, where the election is being held, Daunis and Lily work as group leaders in the Niibing summer program. A cookie offer is withdrawn when the women serving realize Daunis and Lily are not enrolled tribal members. The scene reinforces the pair’s status as descendants—outside the formal tribal rolls—despite their deep ties to the community.

Key Events

Daunis reveals her decision to stay home for college; she is relieved by her grandmother’s understanding.
Granny June shares a life lesson about knowing one’s purpose (river vs. ocean).
The trio laughs at a vandalized campaign billboard that reads “TRIBAL ERECTION.”
Granny June criticizes the Tribal Council and jokes about being let down by them.
Lily and Daunis arrive at Chi Mukwa Arena for work and encounter exclusion from a cookie offer because they are not enrolled members.
Daunis recalls gossip about her parents’ past—the crash that ended her father’s hockey career and her mother’s pregnancy—establishing the community’s long memory.

Character Development

Daunis Fontaine: She takes a major step toward self-determination by choosing to stay close to home, yet she still grapples with the duality of being both Anishinaabe and white. Her reaction to the cookie snub shows a growing awareness of the barriers between descendants and enrolled members.
Lily: She is a loyal and supportive friend who uses humor to lighten heavy moments. Her own non-enrolled status mirrors Daunis’s, and their shared experience of exclusion deepens their bond.
Granny June (Elder): She provides blunt wisdom and cultural grounding. Her frank remarks about politicians and her own past (“skeletons in the closet”) reveal a woman who has lived fully and refuses to be silenced. She teaches resilience through humor.
Daunis’s mother and grandmother (mentioned): Though not present, GrandMary’s acceptance of Daunis’s choice is crucial; it gives Daunis emotional permission to move forward.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

Belonging and Exclusion: The cookie scene vividly illustrates how blood-quantum rules create an “us vs. them” dynamic within the tribe. Daunis and Lily are insiders in most ways yet outsiders in formal membership.
Identity as a Mixture: Daunis compares herself to oil and vinegar—two components that do not join chemically. This motif captures her sense of being split between her white and Anishinaabe heritage.
The River and Ocean Metaphor: Granny June’s comment about boats suggests that different people are suited for different environments. Daunis is uncertain which one she is, reflecting her ongoing search for where she belongs.
Community Gossip: The flashback to rumors about Levi Firekeeper and Grace Fontaine shows how the past continues to shape Daunis’s present, tying together family history and public perception.

Why This Chapter Matters

Chapter 2 solidifies Daunis’s decision to stay in Sault Ste. Marie and establishes the central conflict of her identity—being seen as not Native enough by some, yet fully grounded in Nish culture. It also introduces the political landscape of the Sugar Island Ojibwe Tribe through the election backdrop and Granny June’s cynical commentary. The exclusion at the cookie table foreshadows ongoing tensions around enrollment and belonging that will likely play a larger role in the story. Finally, the chapter deepens the reader’s understanding of Daunis’s support system: Lily and Granny June are her chosen family, offering humor and wisdom in equal measure.

Study Questions and Answers

1. Why does Daunis choose to stay home and attend Lake Superior State University instead of the University of Michigan?
Daunis feels a pull toward her family and community, and she is also swayed by the freedom from constant gossip that moving far away would bring. However, her grandmother’s understanding response gives her peace about the choice. She sees staying as a way to share freshman year with Lily while still earning a degree close to home.

2. How does the scene with the cookies illustrate the theme of belonging?
Daunis and Lily are immediately excited by the offer of cookies, but the server withdraws them when she learns the two are not enrolled tribal members. This small rejection underscores how blood-quantum rules create a visible line between “descendants” and “enrolled members,” reinforcing the girls’ status as partial outsiders even within their own community.

3. What does Granny June mean when she says, “Some boats are for the river and some are for the ocean”?
Granny June uses the metaphor to suggest that each person has a natural path or purpose. Daunis is unsure whether she belongs in the narrower, more familiar “river” (her home community) or the vast “ocean” (a larger world like Ann Arbor). The remark echoes Daunis’s inner conflict about whether staying is the right choice or whether she might eventually need to venture beyond.