[2] The Teme-Augama Anishnabai ("Deep Water by the Shore People") are part of the Anishinaabe people, and Bear Island represents only a small portion of the Anishinaabe's Nindakiiminan ("our land"; locally syncoped as Ndakiimnan or "n'daki menan"), which includes over ten thousand square kilometers of land in the area.

[4] There is scientific evidence that the Three Pines site, located at Sand Point on the hub of Lake Temagami near Bear Island, could have been occupied after 7,500 B.P.

Early chiefs included White Bear (Wabimakwa),[6] Nebenegwune[7] and François Kabimigwune, who was succeeded by his son Ignace Tonené in 1878, who was succeeded by John Paul who died in 1893, leaving Ignace Tonené in power until 1910 when he gave way to his younger brother Frank White Bear.

[8] In 1943, Bear Island was purchased by the Department of Indian Affairs from the Province of Ontario, for the sum of $3,000.00, in order to be designated as a permanent reserve.

Official reserve status was granted in 1971 and the establishment of the Band Office occurred shortly after in the former Department of Lands and Forests building which had been constructed in approximately 1903.

[9][10] In 1988, the Ontario Minister of Natural Resources, Vince Kerrio, approved the expansion of the Red Squirrel logging road, directly through disputed territory.

In 1991, the Wendeban Stewardship Authority was created by the TAA and the Ontario government to manage four townships near the logging road.

Community Days, held in late summer each year, bring back a large part of the full membership as it is an opportunity to renew friendships and family ties and participate in annual Band Council elections.