Bell of Batoche is going home

Back to Batoche Days will be an emotional affair this year when the Bell of Batoche is unveiled on July 20 in a special ceremony.
“I cannot describe to you what it means to the Métis people to have the bell returned… Everything about that bell has meaning,” said Claire Belanger-Parker, event manager. Parker has worked diligently since March when she was brought into the hush-hush plan to return the bell to the Métis people.

“I have been in the background for the past few years,” said Belanger-Parker. “After 2010, I thought I was done what I was called to do, but President (Robert) Doucette at that time told me there was something else we needed to do together.”

The 2010 celebration marked the 125th anniversary of Batoche and 125 years since the bell was stolen from the Batoche church as a victory trophy by Canadian troops following the quelling of the 1885 Riel uprising.

Doucette, who also serves as president of the Métis Nation-Saskatchewan, was disappointed not to be able to bring the bell home in 2010, said Belanger-Parker.

But the timing had not been right, said Guy Savoie, Métis Elder and board member of the Union Nationale Metisse Saint-Joseph du Manitoba, who led the successful negotiations for the return of the bell.

After the bell was snatched from the Roman Catholic Church of St. Antoine de Padoue, it was taken to Millbrook, Ont., home to many of the soldiers who had ended the uprising. It and other artifacts from the soldiers were displayed for decades in the Royal Canadian Legion Hall. In 1991, on Riel’s birthday, the bell mysteriously disappeared and remained hidden, although negotiations for its return to the Métis people occurred off and on.

Savoie remains tight-lipped about who has the bell, which has been kept outside of Winnipeg.

Savoie is adamant that no money exchanged hands in getting the bell back.

“The person who has the bell is an honorable person,” said Savoie. “I think, in the past, people made the mistake of offering money for it. It wasn’t money…. I think the person went and got the bell (from the Legion) because he thought it was time it was returned to the Métis people.”

Savoie, who has seen the bell, confirms its authenticity.

“It is an emotional one. I am not a young person. The bell has become such an important icon for the Métis people, an important symbol of Métis struggles,” he said.

The announcement of the bell’s unveiling was made in Winnipeg on June 21, National Aboriginal Day. A month’s leeway was given to allow Métis people time to plan their journey to Batoche.

For the 125 year celebration, 23,000 Métis people travelled from across Canada and the United States to Batoche. Parker-Belanger is preparing for 30,000, but said she will not be surprised if that number is surpassed.

“This is much bigger. Much, much bigger,” she said. “It was not just a bell. It was the significance of it. It was a very beautiful gift that the church had given to the Métis people of this area. And for the soldiers to rip it out of the church… was devastating to the people.”

The keeper, whose name has remained secret, will return the bell in a mass to be led by Prince Albert Diocese Bishop Albert Thevenot and held on the Back to Batoche grounds, located two kilometres northeast of the Batoche National Historic Site. The bell will travel to its home church the next day as the historic site is too small to handle the crowd anticipated, said Parker-Belanger. The bell will then be carried to the cemetery where the fallen of 1885 will be honored.

Although the bell belongs to the Prince Albert diocese, the Union Nationale will remain guardians. The bell will be kept at St. Boniface museum in Winnipeg, where other Riel and Métis artifacts are also on display. That site is secured, said Savoie.

“This is not to say that in the future discussions can’t take place and the bell couldn’t be housed in Saskatchewan. I’m not against that,” said Savoie, who added that at the moment there is no secure Métis site in Saskatchewan for the bell.

The Union Nationale, a non-political cultural society, would like to see the bell travel to different Métis communities and events throughout the country as well as to schools.

For Parker-Belanger, the opportunity to be personally involved in bringing the bell back to Batoche is one she never expected.

“I’ve had 34 years to prepare for this day,” she said. She was a teenager when the bell was taken from the Legion. “The whole journey for me is very, very meaningful. It’s almost like the last 34 years was preparing me for this.”