It was an ancestral fishing station to the Anishenabek of the Great Lakes region for over 2,000 years.

It was reserved for the use of Chief Nebenaigoching and his band in the Robinson Huron Treaty, 1850 with the British Crown.

The island was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1981.

After years of unsuccessful negotiations, hereditary Chief Edward James Sayers Nebenaigoching occupied the island from 1989 until the claim was settled in 1992.

$3.5 million in damages were paid to the tribe, and the island was returned to Indian reserve status in 1997.