Some Yukon First Nations leaders are upset after Phil Fontaine dismissed their concerns about a rise in the number of deaths of residential school survivors after receiving compensation from Ottawa.

As many as two dozen funerals for former students have taken place across the territory in recent months after the survivors collected thousands of dollars from the federal government.

Some leaders are linking the two, saying compensation compounded with recollection of their painful experiences in residential schools has caused some survivors to turn to drugs and alcohol.

But the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, Phil Fontaine, who helped pen the settlement agreement that resulted in more than $27 million in compensation cheques to survivors in the Yukon since September, disagreed.

"It would be, in my view, wrong to suggest that the residential school settlement agreement [is] somehow directly responsible for the number of deaths in the Yukon," he said in an earlier interview with the CBC.

Fontaine commented that he didn't believe the deaths were directly linked to compensation payouts, but rather part of a larger tragedy of addiction and suicides among aboriginal Canadians.

Those comments have since come under fire from Yukon aboriginal leaders who accuse the assembly's national chief of not being in touch with the community.

"Maybe the national chief should put his finger a little closer to the pulse of the people that he represents," said Darius Elias, a Liberal MLA for the most remote and northern community of Vuntut Gwitchin.

"When self-governing First Nations chiefs in the Yukon say that there's a link and a problem there's a problem and we should get together and do something about it."

Elias added that he's not seeking to lay blame, but to start a discussion about the problems in hopes of solving the issue.

Fontaine's message has since shifted, with the promise to visit the Yukon and listen to the concerns of the First Nations communities.

He added, however, that the "legal and a moral obligation" to provide support for survivors lies with Health Canada.