The Kathio focus is a continuation of the Malmo focus with enough modifications to make it unique. Kathio ceramics are characterized by cord wrapped paddle surface marking and less frequent use of incised lines as decoration. In addition, Kathio ceramics have not been found with pointed bases. A small number of shards with shell tempering indicates some contact with Mississippian people. Katio Ceramics have been found at the Old Shokopee Bridge, Crookston, and Round Mound Sites.
Small triangular projectile points are characteristic of Kathio sites. The Kathio also experienced a shift from bow and arrow to the atalatl.```
Bundled burial and burials with some or all of the bones in place have been found at these sites. The burials are is shallow pits with uncharred logs placed over the bones, or charred logs over or under. There are few artifacts found with these burials. Small stone cairns have been found on the mound floors and parts of animal bodies have been found in the mounds.
Gibbon, Guy. "The Old Shakopee Bridge Site: A Late Woodland Ricing Site on Shakopee Lake, Mille Lacs County, Minnesota." in Minnesota Archaeology, Vol 35, No 2, 1976. pp. 19-20.
Gibbon, Guy E. and Christy A.H. Caine. The Middle to Late Woodland Transition in Eastern Minnesota. Mid-Continental Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 5, No. 1. The Kent State University Press, 1980.
Obey, Wilda Anderson. "The Arvilla People." in Minnesota Archaeology, Vol 33, No 3-4, 1974. p. 8.
Wilford, Lloyd A. "A Revised Classification of the Prehistoric Cultures of Minnesota". in American Antiquity. Vol. XXI, 2, 1955. pp. 134-136.