Physician will work at home

Page 8

There was no doubt in Esther Tailfeathers' mind that when she became a family physician she would be returning home to practise.

And it has been a warm welcome home to the Blood First Nation, in southwestern Alberta.

Only into her first couple of weeks at the Blood Tribe Clinic, Tailfeathers is still being met in the extended care building, adjacent to the clinic, with hugs and warm smiles.

"It's been really good," she said. "I'm really, really happy coming home."

Tailfeathers had always planned to return home when she finished her two year residency in Edmonton, where she served mostly at the Grey Nuns Hospital.

"I always felt that I belonged here," she said. "I felt comfortable around my own people. The sense of humour is really good here."

And not only has Tailfeathers felt the desire to return, but her people have also desired her return.

Every stage of her educational success has been shared with them.

Celebration powwows have been held, the chief of the tribe has attended her graduation, and she has received encouraging and congratulatory letters from people back home.

Tailfeathers attributed her desire to pursue higher education and medicine to her mother, Virginia Tailfeathers, who was a homemaker and drove a school bus for 30 years.

"I think most of the success in our family is credited to her," said Esther.

Tailfeathers' final push to pursue medicine over education came with her brother Darcy's death in a car accident in 1987. At that time, Darcy was in his third year of medicine.

Tailfeathers is a graduate from medical school at the University of North Dakota.

"I went to the United States because the Univeristy of North Dakota has an Indians into Medicine program," she explained.

With only 60 students in the entire medical program, 10 were Native. There Tailfeathers met Navajos, Seminoles, Sioux and Ojibwe, among others.

"There was a good support system there," she said. "It also had a strong component for rural medicine."

What it provided as well was an opportunity for Tailfeathers to discuss with like-minded, like-experienced fellow students the benefits of traditional medicine.

"My colleagues and I talked a lot about how to deal with traditional medicine," she said. "We really thought that the two had to be combined."

While her practice at the Blood reserve hasn't yet provided her with the opportunity to work the western medicine with the traditional medicine, Tailfeathers knows that when the opportunity arises, she will embrace it.

"I do feel the majority of our problems here stem from a psychological basis," said Tailfeathers. "People need to feel the strength inside of them to heal. They often can't get that from western medicine."

Many of her patients already have Elders they turn to and Tailfeathers noted that every summer a Sundance is held on the reserve, which provides an opportunity for everybody to participate in healing and protective ceremonies.

But, she cautioned, the two must be balanced.

"I do have a problem with healers cutting a person off entirely from medicine."

While the Blood clinic has been in operation since 1985, this is the first time a First Nations physician has been on staff.

"A lot of Native women don't feel comfortable going to a non-Native, male doctor," she said. "I think my practice will be mostly women and children."

Complementing Tailfeathers' work is Dr. Daniel Bester, who began in May 2000. A non-Native, Tailfeathers expects him to be seeing most of the men who come to the clinic.

"It's part of our tradition for women and men to be shy of others (of the oppositive sex) in the tribe, particularly when it comes to touching."

Right now, Tailfeathers' duties consist of eight hour days, four days a week at the clinic and two 12-hour shifts in the emergency room at the hospital in Browning, Mont., just across the border, where members of the Blackfoot tribe live.

"I enjoy Browning because there are three Blackfoot doctors, one in residency and nother in medical school. There will be five."

Around the end of April, Tailfeathers is hoping to get admitting and delivering privileges in the Cardston hospital, where, in sharp contrast to Browning, she will be the only First Nations doctor there.

Tailfeathers views her successful return home as proof to young people that their dreams, too, can be realized.

"We really need to build confidence in ourselves," she says. "When we see our own people doing something good, something positive, it builds our confidence in our people."

The Blood Tribe is making advances in the medical field, she points out, with cousin Tim Tailfeathers a pharmacist at the clinic and another member, Bob Fox, in his third year in medical school. There are also members who are registered nurses, licenced practical nurses, a physiotherapist and medical administrators.

"We're hoping in the future to have all our own people taking care of our people. It's been a long time coming," said Tailfeathers, "but I think it's really important for us to have confidence in our people, to know we can do everything for ourselves. It's important to get away from the attitude of dependency."