The story of the Dene language family starts early in the Pleistocene, a mid-Holocene inflection of Siberian origin, and eventual expansion to encompass many parts of western North America. The theme for the session will be broad, looking at the Dene experience from deep time to the present day, the initial migration south and west from the northern Canadian and interior Alaskan homeland to the coast of the current states of California and Oregon, the western Great Plains, and eastern Great Basin, and the eventual dispersal and differentiation of the different groups to modern homelands. We welcome a diversity of approaches and topics, and the intent of this session is to expand on the narrower focus of the Apachean Origins session at the 2022 CAA meeting in Edmonton to include all aspects of the Dene experience, from their arrival in the North to their role in the Southwest culture area as agents of innovation, trade and social evolution.