We are delighted to share that award-winning, change-making First Nations community physician Esther Tailfeathers’ HOLY BEAR WOMAN, a narrative work-in-essays recounting the impact of the opioid crisis on Indigenous communities, her experience as a doctor working at the epicenter of the catastrophe, and how resilience and hope prevail throughout history and today, to katherena vermette at Simon and Schuster Canada for the Scribner Canada imprint, in her first acquisition there, for publication Fall 2026, by Samantha Haywood at Transatlantic Agency (World).

Esther Tailfeathers, M.D. is a mother, grandmother and community physician. She was born and raised on the Blood Reserve, Kainai First Nation, where she has also worked for much of her career. Esther completed her M.D. at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and her Family Medicine Residency at the University of Alberta.

Esther has practiced on the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana, many rural emergency rooms, the northern remote community of Fort Chipewyan and in her home community of the Blood Reserve. She has been actively involved in promoting and developing Primary Care for Indigenous communities in Alberta, and Esther served to improve health care service delivery for Indigenous peoples in her role as the Senior Medical Lead for Indigenous Wellness Core for Alberta Health Services.

Esther has received numerous awards in medicine including The University of Lethbridge Friends of Health Sciences Outstanding Commitment to Community Health and Health Education, The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons Thomas Dignan Award, The Aboriginal Role Models of Alberta in Health Award (2023), The Queen’s Jubilee 2023 Award, University of Lethbridge Honorary Doctorate Award (2023), and The Canadian Medical Association F.N.G. Starr Award (2023). 

In the Indigenous world she has lived among the Sami People of Northern Scandinavia, has visited and worked in many Indigenous communities in Canada and has heard their stories of inequity in health care. Over the last 10 years she has worked with her community in response to the Opioid Crisis, developing a step-by-step continuum of care which is highlighted in the NFB film “Kimmapiiyipitssini, The Meaning of Empathy” directed and produced by her daughter, Elle-Maija Tailfeathers.

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