As early as 750 B.C., Native caribou hunters from the western Subarctic region started to move eastward towards northern transition forest and tundra zone of northern Manitoba. Archaeologists refer to their culture as the Taltheilei Shale Tradition, named after Taltheilei Narrows on Great Slave Lake (MacNeish 1951). The Taltheilei people are considered to be the ancestors of the contemporary Dene and are usually referred to as proto-Athapaskan, who are linguistically and culturally distinct from the Cree, Ojibwe and other Algonkian people of the Boreal Forest. The tradition can be divided into three phases:
Early Taltheilei - 750 B.C. - A.D. 200
Middle Taltheilei - A.D. 200 - 700
Late Taltheilei - A.D. 700 - 1700