This past Thursday marked the 130th anniversary of one of the most important events in the history of the Frog Lake First Nation - the Frog Lake Massacre.
This past Thursday marked the 130th anniversary of one of the most important events in the history of the Frog Lake First Nation - the Frog Lake Massacre.
It was a tragedy that took the lives of nine people, and saw the destruction of the buildings in the community, including the church, which was dedicated to Our Lady of Good Counsel, and the rectory. The smoke that permeated throughout the community blackened the Bell of Frog Lake, and the scaffolding that supported it.
Two months later, in June of 1885, the bell was stolen.
A report filed by historian Dr. Juliette Champagne pinpoints the time of abduction to the middle of that month. Soldiers of the Ontario-based Millbrook Company were in the community from June 11 to June 21, and while they were there they reportedly stole the bell as a souvenir of the North-West campaign that quashed insurgency from the Metis and Aboriginal groups living on the Canadian Prairies. The conflict between these groups, and the Canadian federal government, is famously known as the Northwest Rebellion of 1885. The piece of evidence that supports this version of events is a diary entry from Will Young, a soldier of that company. In the letter he boasts about how he and his friends took the bell.
The report produced by Champagne was compiled in a bid to support the Frog Lake First Nation in retrieving the historic bell. The report contains all the proofs of the bell belonging to Frog Lake, and it also debunks incorrect myths about the bell. The bell's current holding place is in Saint-Boniface, Man., in the possession of Bishop Albert Th évenot of the Diocese of Prince Albert.
In recent weeks, there have been ongoing negotiations taking place with Bishop Th évenot's legal representation and a lawyer representing Frog Lake, in a quest to get the bell back to Alberta.
“We really want to settle this in an amiable fashion if possible,&” says Champagne. “No one wants to go to court. It always costs a lot of money and it creates hard feelings.&”
In addition to the documental evidence collected by Champagne, a CBC Doc Zone documentary, which Champagne helped create, called The Mystery of the Bell, and a Radio-Canada documentary entitled La l égende de la cloche (The Legend of the Bell), also reached the same conclusion that the bell belongs to Frog Lake.
Shirley Quinney, the historical project director of the Frog Lake First Nations, has been spearheading the effort to bring the bell back to Frog Lake. She says while the bell has not been present on the reserve for over a century it has never been forgotten.
“My late father, Arthur Stanley, was the person who told me about the history surrounding the bell,&” says Shirley. “My father would take me to the sites and educate me about what took place. The elders also passed on stories about what happened, and talked about the bell that became lost.&”
She says everyone in the nation is rooting for the return of this bell.
“Our people have suffered enough. This is something we all want to bring back home so we can just bring peace and harmony back into our community.&”
“The bell has so much significance,&” says Shirley's husband, Derrick Quinney. “Over 100 years it has been gone. What kind of stories do you think that bell can tell us if it could talk? It is overwhelming to think about.&”
The Batoche Confusion
Up until The Mystery of the Bell documentary was first aired on April 10, 2014, there was widespread belief that the bell that was stolen by the Millbrook soldiers was the famous Marie Antoinette bell from Batoche, Sask.
Parks Canada produced an oral history account of how the bell was stolen from that community in 1885. In a black-and-white film, Senator John Boucher of the Metis National Council talks about how his grandmother told him about she had seen Canadian soldiers steal the bell.
The “Bell of Batoche&” once again captured the attention of a nation in 1991 when Billy Jo Delaronde, a Metis man from Manitoba, took it from the Millbrook Legion.
“The Batoche Bell really did become a symbol for the Metis in the Northwest,&” says Champagne. “It represented the losses and the suffering they had endured in 1885, and afterwards. They were completely devastated with having much of their livestock destroyed, and having their houses burned down. The Canadian soldiers did all kinds of damage to them.
“These people rallied around the bell. When the CBC documentary (The Mystery of the Bell) came out, it was quite a shock for these people. There are still some naysayers because of this oral history account.&”
One of the people who believe in this oral history account was Delaronde. When he took the bell at Millbrook in 1991, he did not believe he was committing a criminal action, but instead an act of repatriation.
Delaronde said in the CBC documentary that at one point he considered throwing the bell in a lake, because holding onto the bell became such a burden. His friends convinced him to return it to Batoche.
Bishop Th évenot, who is Metis, played a central role in the negotiations that saw the bell's safe return to Batoche in July 2013. It was unveiled at the annual Back to Batoche Days festival.
As part of her work on the Mystery of the Bell documentary, Champagne discovered that the Marie Antoinette bell was never actually stolen from Batoche.
By examining missionary papers and parish archives, Champagne discovered the Marie Antoinette bell was actually donated to the neighbouring parish, St. Laurent de Grandin.
It was relatively easy for the parish of Batoche to part with the Marie Antoinette bell, at that time. This bell, which only first came to the community in 1884, was replaced with a larger bell less than 10 years later.
“The bell was donated to St. Laurent in 1937, and then it was destroyed in a fire in 1990,&” says Champagne.
A story published on the CBC website on April 10, 2014, the same day its documentary first aired, shows a picture of Champagne with the burned remains of the Marie Antoinette bell.
Frog Lake pushes to reclaim lost bell
The Mystery of the Bell contained a bounty of documental evidence that indicates that the “Batoche&” bell is actually the Frog Lake bell. Champagne's report indicates that the bell was first established at Our Lady of Good Counsel in 1883.
In addition to the documentary being available for viewing on the CBC website, the documental evidence is available to view as well. Some of the documents on the website, which reveal that the bell belongs to Frog Lake include:
The diary of Millbrook Company soldier Will Young—discovered in 1999—that states two of his friends stole the bell from the Roman Catholic Mission of Frog Lake. The letter states that the bell was the “best relic brought to Ontario.&”
A letter penned by Bishop Vital Grandin, who served the Diocese of St. Albert. It was composed on Aug. 27, 1885, and addressed to Father Leon-F Fafard. In the letter he describes the desolation of the Frog Lake Massacre. He states that the bell was still there on June 8, but now it is gone because some soldiers took it away. He said while people “searched mightily for it, we have been unable to find it.&”
A letter from James O'Loane, a Catholic man, to Bishop Grandin, written on May 18, 1888. In the letter, O'Loane reports that the Frog Lake Bell is either in an Orange Lodge or a fire hall in Millbrook, Ontario.
An article in the Toronto Mail, dated July 19, 1888. In this article, Captain Charles Winslow, the commander of the Millbrook Company that took the bell, says the bell belongs to the Frog Lake Church, and thus it should be returned.
The Frog Lake case for the bell has been boosted in recent weeks with the discovery of two additional documents.
One of those documents is a claim report by Fr. Moulin of the Batoche Parish, which was produced in 1885 and sent to the Canadian government. In this report there is no mention of a bell being stolen.
Champagne says, “There were damages to the building. There was also a loss of 700 feet of rail fence that was worth $70, the loss of an accordion worth $15, two gallons of mass wine worth $6, a portfolio full of cash and other items, but no bell.&”
Champagne stated in an email to the Journal that Fr. Leduc, the vicar of the Diocese of St. Albert, did claim a loss of a church bell from the Frog Lake Mission.
The other document discovered within the last three weeks is a sessional paper from 1887, which contains a summary of claims, including the one from Fr. Moulin.
The fact that a bell had not been listed among the items to be replaced at the St. Antoine de Padoue parish in Batoche, was definitely a significant discovery.
“It was such a jubilant moment for us to finally find that last piece of evidence that we were looking for,&” says Champagne.
The last meeting between the group from Frog Lake and Bishop Th évenot, including his legal representation, took place on March 10. It was at that meeting that both sides agreed the bell should be housed at a neutral location until a conclusion is reached.
That location is the vault of the La Soci ét é historique de Saint-Boniface.
Locals are confident that the bell will return to Frog Lake. And when it does return, it will be placed in an interpretive centre. People from around the world will have the ability to learn about this bell's storied past. It will also serve as an important instrument in teaching young people about the Frog Lake Nation's past. One designation this returned bell won't have is “war trophy.&”
