Esther Tailfeathers

Esther Tailfeathers (born 1960/1961) is a Canadian physician.

Raised on teetotal tribal lands, where she observed her father's struggles with alcohol, she became the medical lead at Alberta Health Services' Indigenous Wellness Core, where she developed Indigenous Health Commitments: Roadmap to Wellness. She married Bjarne Store-Jakobsen, with whom she had a daughter and son, Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, and Piinaakoyim Tailfeathers.

Early life Tailfeathers was born in 1960 or 1961 She grew up on tribal lands, where alcohol is prohibited, and recalls other community members becoming bootleggers to earn money. She recalls at the age of 12 driving her father to the bootlegger's so he could buy gin to help with a hangover. Her father stopped drinking in the early 1980s after a court order to do so. Tailfeathers has described her approach to treating addiction as informed by her father's struggles with alcohol. She became the medical lead at Alberta Health Services' (AHS) Indigenous Wellness Core (IWC), where she was instrumental in developing Indigenous Health Commitments: Roadmap to Wellness. She resigned in 2023 after a job offer to Deena Hinshaw to become the IWC's public health and preventive medicine lead was revoked by AHS after protests by Albertans who disagreed with Hinshaw's COVID-19 decisions while she was Alberta's top doctor.

In 2019, Tailfeathers was awarded the Dr. Thomas Dignan Indigenous Health Award for her contribution to improved Indigenous health care in Canada. The film, narrated by Elle-Maija Tailfeathers, details the couple's "mythical love story" after they met at the 1981 World Council of Indigenous Peoples assembly in Australia and the family's struggles, which eventually ended in their divorce.