Hundreds of Yukoners flooded the streets of Whitehorse late Monday afternoon as people continued to mourn the discovery of a mass grave in Kamloops, B.C. containing an estimated 215 bodies of residential school students.

Several Yukon First Nations organizations are choosing to let the memorials do their talking for them.

The Council of Yukon First Nations has no plans to issue a statement, spokesperson Lael Lund said Monday.

Likewise, the Champagne-Aishihik First Nations had no plans to make a statement.

The Carcross-Tagish First Nation (CTFN) did send out a statement on Monday.

Stewart Burnett, a spokesperson for the First Nation, said Tuesday some residents are now worried there could be undiscovered burials in the area dating back to its residential school era.

“Yes, some in the community believe there may be graves,” Burnett said. “CTFN would like to move forward to look at investigating that possibility.”

It’s expected the First Nation will explore the costs and logistics of beginning a search with ground-penetrating radar.

Joanne Henry, the executive director of care with the Committee on Abuse in Residential Schools Society (CAIRS), was almost too upset to talk about the situation Tuesday.

“There are two sides to how I’m feeling,” she told the Star. “On one hand, I’m a director with CAIRS. On the other, I’m a survivor of a Catholic residential school.

“Nobody knew this was in Kamloops,” Henry said. “There were not even rumours.

“People knew children were missing, but nobody knew what had happened to them.”

She noted there were no records kept by the school management about the children in the mass grave.

Henry paused at that point to gather her thoughts again.

“I don’t know how to feel,” she continued. “There’s so much sadness. It was decades ago, but it feels so fresh now. To me, it’s like we shared the same things.

“That’s 215 families who don’t know what happened. The good thing is that it can’t be covered up anymore. The truth will come out.”

Henry didn’t want to predict whether people will resist exploring every residential school site in search of more hidden graves like those in Kamloops. Nor did she want to speculate as to how long the process will take.

“I’m not commenting on that,” she said, and repeated, “it can’t be covered up anymore.”