First Nations in the Yukon want to know how many deaths followed the arrival of compensation payments to former students of native residential schools.
Aboriginal leaders have noticed a higher than usual number of funerals in communities across the territory in recent months, even prompting one chief to organize a territory-wide prayer circle next week.
No one can say for sure how many of those deaths are attributable to the thousands of dollars in common experience payments going to former students and the social problems, from alcohol and drug abuse to suicide, that can arise from such payments, combined with their recollections of the residential school experience.
So the Council of Yukon First Nations says it will conduct its own count to get some firm numbers.
"It's something that I'll ask the health directors at the communities — what do they think might have been [directly or indirectly] caused by Indian residential schools, and get some sort of statistic from that," Lori Duncan, the council's health director, told CBC News on Wednesday.
Unofficial estimates point to 19 compensation-related deaths in the Yukon since the cheques began arriving in September. But Jessie Dawson, a member of the Kwanlin Dun First Nation in Whitehorse, said it would be better to get an accurate count.
"It would be interesting to see exactly what those numbers are, right across the country since this has all started. It probably is higher," said Dawson, who has lost two of her own family members since the compensation payments started arriving.
"I just hate to think of what lies ahead, you know, if we don't find the resources, or what we need."
Duncan warned that the council's count would not make for "secure statistics," but added the lack of numbers makes it difficult to apply for resources to hire more counsellors.
The Aboriginal Healing Foundation has provided money for five grief counsellors in the Yukon, but Duncan said there should be one counsellor in every community.
Dawson said she would also like to see a support system set up to deal with the pain Yukon First Nation communities are feeling.
"We need to have some sort of programs that would help the families and individual members, or whoever they may be, get what they need and go home and feel like they're going to wake up tomorrow or their loved ones are going to wake up tomorrow," she said.