REDSTONE CHURCH BUILT IN 1910
by Sage Birchwater

In the early 1900's, when Father Francois Marie Thomas began his yearly missionary treks into the Chilcotin and Blackwater country, there were no churches west of the Fraser River.  Father Thomas would set out in the spring from Quesnel, as soon as there was enough green grass to feed his horses, and he visited the native communities of Nazko, Kluskus, Ulkatcho, Anahim Lake, Redstone, Anaham, Stone and Toosey, before returning home to St Joseph's Mission near Williams Lake.

When St Francis Church was built at Redstone Flats in 1910, there were no other buildings on the broad expanse of meadows beneath the outcropping of red colored rock that gave the flats its name.  Most families lived elsewhere, moving about the country with the seasons, doing contract work for ranches, trapping, hunting, fishing and gathering what they needed to survive.  Families were largely independent and came together for large community gatherings throughout the year.  Once Father Thomas convinced the Tsi Deldel people to build a church on Redstone Flats, "Priest Time" became a popular occasion for people to gather there once or twice a year.

A weeklong bout of festivities was held that included nights of dancing, gambling, socializing and attending to the matters of the church.  Church business included a yearlong backlog of marriages, funerals, baptizing and instruction in religion.  Gradually some families built houses there at Redstone Flats to accommodate themselves during the gatherings. "My family had a house there," remembers Tsi Deldel Chief Ervin Charleyboy.  "We never lived there though.  Our main place was ten miles up the road closer to Harold Stewart's store." Ervin's grandfather, Chief Charleyboy, was chief of the Alexis Creek Band at the time the church was built at Redstone Flats.  "He was chief from 1900 until the day he died in 1956," remembers Ervin.  And the Tsi Deldel priest time gathering coincided with the kids getting let off for the summer holidays from the mission.  "I remember that was quite the time for celebration.  We got dropped off at Redstone and people were camped all over.  The church was one of the only buildings there then."