The Bell of Batoche will be on public display at the St. Boniface Museum on Louis Riel day.  The museum is open Monday and executive director Philippe Mailhot says he’ll be there to tell the bell’s story. 

The history of the bell is long and complicated and bound up with Riel’s life and his last stand for Metis rights.   Installed in the steeple of the Batoche church in 1884, the bell was removed and taken as a trophy by Canadian soldiers following the final battle of the Northwest Rebellion in 1885.   Bragging rights for who really returned the bell to the Metis has engendered contradictory accounts from several sources.

 

It made a brief public appearance in Batoche last summer at its original home, the Sainte-Antoine-de-Padoue Church.  Since then, the museum has sent it on tour in Western Canada.

Mailhot said he realizes the bell is still controversial but added it’s a symbol of unity and reconciliation between the Metis, the Canadian public and the Roman Catholic Church.