Fatty Legs: A True Story

Use these links to supplement and complement students’ reading of the work and to increase their overall enjoyment of literature. Challenge them to discern parallel themes, engage through visual and aural stimuli, and delve deeper into the thematic possibilities presented by the title.

Recommended Texts for Pairing

Christy Jordan-Fenton and Margaret-Olemaun Pokiak-Fenton’s A Stranger at Home

• This follow up to Fatty Legs follows Margaret-Olemaun’s return home after the two years covered in Fatty Legs.
• The memoir focuses on how Olemaun recovered the things she lost at residential school—primarily her connection to the Inuvialuit way of life

An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States for Young People

• Adapted by Jean Mendoza and Debbie Reese from Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz’s work for adults, which chronicles the history of the United States from the perspective of the people who were already living there when Europeans arrived.
• The perspectives presented in this book challenge national myths about the founding and development of the United States and bring young readers closer to a full understanding of the complex truth of US history.
• An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States for Young People on SuperSummary

Carter G. Woodson’s The Mis-Education of the Negro

• Published in 1933, Woodson’s book critiques American educational systems as inadequate sources of education for Black people, citing embedded racism, economic opportunism, and more as social problems that hold Black people back from actual progress.
• Woodson’s work presents an opportunity to students to explore The Intimate and Impersonal Dimensions of Colonialism and The Importance of Self-Esteem for Children from an African American’s perspective, one that many say still resonates today.
• The Mis-Education of the Negro on SuperSummary

Other Student Resources

The U.S. history of Native American Boarding Schools

Residential Schools and their Lasting Impacts

• These articles from The Indigenous Foundation detail the history and legacy of residential schools (also called Native American Boarding Schools) in the United States.
• Both articles include photographs, some from primary sources.

Accessible Media Inc.’s “A Taste of Nunavut, documentary”

• This 50-minute documentary follows host Kelly MacDonald on a trip to Nunavut in the northernmost part of Canada.
• Accessible Media’s work focuses on the ways the territory is accessible for people of diverse abilities, and it covers many cultural traditions of the indigenous people living in the region.

“Indigenous TikToker Educates Others on Arctic Life”

• Features a montage of videos from Iñupiaq TikToker Patuk Glenn, who hails from the northernmost region of Alaska in the United States.
• Content warning: one video includes explicit language, and videos toward the end (after the three-minute mark) add little in the way of valuable information for learners.

Tony Devlin’s “The Inuvik Drummers and Dancers - Inuvialuit HD Drum Dance Series”

• Created for the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, this video serves as a promotional video for Inuvik drummers and dancers.

Teacher Resources

Unseen Tears (2009)

• This half-hour documentary features survivors of Thomas Indian School and the Mohawk Institute, each school near the border between New York, USA and Ontario, Canada.

CCTV America Documentary: “On Thin Ice: the People of the North”

• Focuses on present-day life inside or near the Arctic Circle both in the US and Canada, including the region where Olemaun’s story takes place

“Eskimo, Inuit, and Inupiaq: Do these terms mean the same thing?”

• This page explains the nuanced differences in the terminology used to generally describe indigenous peoples from the Arctic region.

Inuvialuit Communications Society’s “08 07 SUAANGAN Residential School Days”

• This 45-minute documentary from the Inuvialuit Communications Society features interviews and commentary from survivors of Canada’s residential schools.

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC): “As Canada grapples with residential school legacy, the U.S. looks to its own history”

• This 2021 article covers the latest findings on the legacy of forced “re-education” of indigenous people in Canada and talks about the movement to correct that legacy in the United States.
• Features quotes and interviews with Christine Diindiisi McCleave, chief executive officer of the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, and US Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland