SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - The Dene Nation is establishing a reward fund in an effort to help solve cases of missing or murdered women in the NWT.

Dene Nation and regional Assembly of First Nations Chief Bill Erasmus hopes financial reward will prompt people to come forward with information about missing women. - NNSL file photo

Dene Nation Chief Bill Erasmus said the Dene leadership is going to start fundraising and working with the RCMP to set up a financial reward in exchange for information about unsolved cases, a project the leadership supported at its recent assembly in Dettah from Oct. 19 to 23.

The assembly also voted to establish a reward for information about Highway of Tears, a stretch of highway in northern British Columbia where more than 30 women – most of them First Nations – have gone missing or been killed over the past three decades.

Erasmus said the Dene Nation and the Assembly of First Nations are still working out the details of the rewards, such as how much money they will comprise and how the money will be distributed to those with information.

"The police have been trying to get to the bottom of it and they're having a tough time. They're trying their best but we think that if we're able to put some money together, if we're able to develop a fund, then surely there might be somebody out there that can say 'you know what, I remember seeing something on that highway where these people are missing,'" Erasmus said, adding that missing person cases have affected many families and communities across the North.

"People are afraid to go out. People generally become afraid and you don't want people living in fear."

According to RCMP statistics, 67 people have gone missing in the territory and have never been found. Eleven of those disappearances have not had foul play ruled out and police believe five cases are unsolved murders.

Sgt. Brad Kaeding said only about 20 per cent of those missing are women, ranging in age from four to 80 years old.

"Many of the missing persons are hunters who went out and didn't come back from a hunting trip or who were actually seen going snowmobiling and crashed through the ice or boating mishaps and that sort of thing, so because the body hasn't actually been recovered, they're still considered missing persons," Kaeding said.

In addition to those 67 cases, police have 15 cases of recovered human remains that don't match the DNA of any of those missing.