We are descendants — rather than enrolled members — of the Sugar Island Ojibwe Tribe.
-- Narrator (Part 1: Chapter 2)

Importance: Daunis explains that she and Lily are treated as outsiders because they are not enrolled members of the tribe. Since Daunis’s father’s name is not listed on her birth certificate, she has no proof she is his daughter. Lily does not have the required blood percentage to enable her to be an enrolled member of the tribe.

Yet even with such deep roots, I don’t always feel like I belong. Each time my Fontaine grandparents or their friends have seen my Ojibwe side as a flaw or a burden to overcome. And the less frequent but more heartbreaking instances when my Firekeeper family sees me as a Fontaine first and one of them second.
-- Narrator (Part 1: Chapter 4)

Importance: Daunis feels as if she should be ashamed of her Native American lineage because her Fontaine grandparents, who are rich...