The Catholic presence on the Reservation began in the middle years of World War II when Vincentian seminarians from Our Lady of the Angels Seminary at Niagara University frequently visited Holy Family Chapel. Their visits, by car or on foot, proved fruitful as they started to give religious instruction to adults and children. This led to the establishment of a small Catholic community which in 1950 celebrated the first Eucharist under a large teepee.

As the community grew, it moved first to a small store, then to a home, and finally to a barn. With the help of local Native Americans and the assistance of the seminarians, the barn was slowly transformed into a chapel. This chapel was then inaugurated on September 8, 1953.

To distinguish it as a Native American chapel, one of the seminarians painted a picture of the Holy Family in Native American dress which was placed above the altar.

The chapel was considered a mission church within the boundaries of St. Peter's Parish in Lewiston, NY. It was maintained by the members of the Native American Catholic community and by Vincentian seminarians.

When, in 1962, the seminary was moved to Albany, NY, the fate of the chapel remained doubtful until the Barnabite Fathers of the nearby Fatima shrine readily accepted Bishop Leo Smith's invitation, "in a phone conversation," to assume the responsibility of the chapel.

On the feast of the Immaculate Conception, December 8, 1976, Most Rev. Edward D. Head, Bishop of Buffalo, canonically erected Holy Family as a Parish for the Native Americans of Niagara County.

The old barn chapel burned down on November 4, 1987. A new chapel was immediately built by the Barnabites on a far less isolated location on the reservation. On Sunday, January 29, 1989, the first Sunday Eucharist was celebrated there.

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