War trophy church bell to be returned

Bell of Batoche stolen in 1991 at Millbrook Legion

MILLBROOK — A church bell taken as a war trophy by soldiers from Millbrook during the Louis Riel-led North West Rebellion in 1885 is set to be unveiled in a Saskatchewan community next month.

The bell vanished from the public realm when it was stolen from the Royal Canadian Legion in Millbrook in 1991 — shortly after Metis leaders visited the Legion branch to view the artifact.

The bell will be unveiled during a special mass at the Saint-Antoine-de-Padoue Church in Batoche, Sask. on July

20, a source has told the Win

nipeg Free Press.

Before the theft, some Royal Canadian Legion Branch 402 members in Millbrook strongly opposed returning the bell to the Metis community — but the current Millbrook Legion president says even at that time discussions were underway to return the artifact.

Some of the older members felt that the bell was part of the spoils of war, that it belonged to the Millbrook community, said John Dike, who has been a member of the Legion branch since 1979.

“They felt quite strongly about it. But they’ve all passed away,” he said. “My personal opinion is it’s the property of the Catholic church…. It should never have been stolen in the first place.”

Dike’s not convinced that the bell has been found.

About five years ago there were rumours that the bell was going to resurface, Dike said.

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” he said.

Police investigated the theft of what has been called the Bell of Batoche.

The Metis community sought the return of the bell that hung in the church in the community that was the headquarters of Riel’s provisional government of Saskatchewan during the rebellion. Riel was defeated at the Battle of Batoche in May 1885.

But the bell taken by soldiers from Millbrook may not be the

Bell of Batoche.

Robert Winslow, the artistic director for 4th Line Theatre, did extensive research on Millbrook’s bell for his play, Cross

ings: The Bell of Batoche.

And Winslow’s great-great uncle, Charles Winslow, was the captain of the company of soldiers from the Millbrook area that went west to help put down the uprising.

“The Millbrook bell was taken from Frog Lake,” Winslow said.

Winslow said he has documentation, including articles from local newspapers after the bell was brought to the community, that show the bell was taken in June 1885 from Frog Lake in current Alberta when the soldiers were tracking First Nations leaders Wandering Spirit and Big Bear after an attack associated with the North West Rebellion.

A group of aboriginals entered Frog Lake settlement in search of food and took prisoners. Several settlers were killed.

It was referred to as the Frog Lake bell until the 1970s or 1980s, Winslow said.

“It’s become the Batoche Bell,” he said. “It’s one of those things in history where history gets revised.”

Winslow said the bells from Batoche and Frog Lake were from the same batch of bells from Spain that were blessed by the same Catholic bishop.

“It should definitely go out west.… It was wrong that they took it,” he said. “I don’t think anybody really wants it back in Millbrook.”

The people who took the bell from the Legion in 1991 also took the medals of one of the three soldiers that brought the bell to Millbrook, Sgt. Fred McCrory.

“We would like to get them back,” Dike said. “They’re part of Millbrook’s history.”

Dike is waiting for the bell to actually resurface before organizing a campaign for the return of the medals.

“I would think if the bell surfaces, the RCMP are going to be asking a bunch of questions,” he said.