Students at Saskatoon school get firsthand look at Métis history

Kids at Fairhaven School in Saskatoon had the chance to see a piece of history Thursday.

There is controversy over the bell's exact origin. It's either from Batoche, Sask., or Frog Lake, Alta., de‐ pending on whose historical account you believe.

Either way, its history is tied up with the birth of the Métis nation and the last bat‐ tle of Louis Riel in the 19th century.

The bell was stolen by Canadian soldiers as a trophy of war after the Battle of Ba‐ toche in 1885. It remained in a legion hall in Millbrook, Ont., until 1991, when Billyjo De‐ LaRonde and four other Métis people took it back to Batoche, which is about 75 kilometres

Saskatoon.

DeLaRonde came to the school on Thursday to talk about the history of the bell.

The bell is named Marie Antoinette, but it is not to be confused with the last Queen of France. In this case, Marie is northeast of a variation of Mary, the moth‐ er of Jesus, and Antoinette is referring to the patron saint Anthony.

DeLaRonde insists it was from Batoche.

"They got the story wrong about the bell," said De‐ LaRonde. "There's certain things that they had asserted and they're not true. By way of examples, there's bullet marks on the bell."

DeLaRonde said Batoche is the only battle where a Gatling gun was used at that time and that the bullet marks are from a Gatling.

Shirley Isbister, president of the Central Urban Métis Federation Inc. (CUMFI), was the other guest speaker. Isbis‐ ter is also a grandmother to three students at Fairhaven. She said when she heard they were learning about the Bat‐ tle of Batoche in class, she de‐ cided to bring in the actual thing.

Isbister's connection to the historic bell goes back generations.

"My great grandfather Charles Trottier fought in the Battle of Batoche along with his brother Michael," said Is‐ bister. "And his brother Michael is one of the seven buried in at Batoche in the grave of seven."

Isbister blessed the bell upon its arrival back in Ba‐ toche, and said it was "an overwhelming experience." To her the bell symbolizes hope.

"When you touch her, and you feel the power of the bell, I think that symbolizes how the Métis people, how we move forward and how we've always moved forward," said Isbister.

Grade 5 student Kal Beatty was one of the students in the assembly who was able to see the bell up close and learned about the Battle of Batoche in class before this presentation.

"I thought it was really cool, like, actually feeling the actual bell. I thought that was a once in a lifetime thing," said Beatty.