Lake Benton is part of the Late Woodland people. Lake Benton is located in Southwestern and South-central Minnesota. They were around between A.D. 900 - 1500(?).
There have been no house structures evident at any excavated sites with Lake Benton associations.
Their lithics were usually made of chert, chalcedony, or quartzite from local sources. The projectile points are primarily side- or corner-notched triangular varieties. The tools are also small scrapers, knives and other lithics normally associated with the hunter-gatherer tool kit (Anfinson, p.109).
Some of the primary food sources of the Lake Benton are bison, fish and various small mammals (ex. muskrats) found in prairie-lake biome.
Their burial practices are not well known, but it is possible that many of the mound groups in Southwestern Minnesota are associated with the Lake Benton phase. Ceramics from the mound fill of the Lake Shetek Mounds are thin, cordmarked sherds that are most likely Late rather than Middle Woodland which tend to indicate they belong to the Lake Benton phase (Anfinson, p.109).
The ceramics of Lake Benton have similarities to Late Woodland types found throughout the Upper Midwest but appear to be a direct outgrowth of the preceding Fox Lake ceramic tradition.
The differences between the Middle and Late Woodland ceramics in the prairie-lake region are:
The change in thickness is especially important as it is a measurable attribute of even very small body sherds (Anfinson, p.109).
The hardness of the ceramics is 3.0-3.5 on the Moh scale, the thickness is 4-8mm, and the color is reddish brown to dark gray. The vessel form and size is thin-walled, wide-mouthed jars with flat to slightly rounded lips, moderately constricted necks, and conoidal bottoms (p.110).
Early Lake Benton is apparently contemporaneous with Early Plains Villager complexes (Great Oasis, Cambria) and Blue Earth Oneota in southern Minnesota. Many of the same sites are used by all these groups. It is likely the hunter-gatherer way of life in the prairie-like zone on Minnesota represented a more adaptable and even preferable way of life than that of early maize agriculture (p.110).
Anfinson, Scott F. A Handbook of Minnesota Prehistoric Ceramics. Minnesota Archaeological Society, Fort Snelling, 1979.