In order to understand history archaeologists and scholars have found it necessary to classify time periods by a multitude of traits and aspects etc. Though history itself, regardless of time, place or space is entirely arbitrary, most historians acknowledge the separation of these traits and aspects as valid. In the late 1930s, Midwestern archaeologists came to the realization that systems currently used in the southwest for classifying sites and artifacts were difficult to associate with certain time periods. The problem was that Midwestern sites didn't show clear stratification and were poorly preserved. Luckily there had been a great deal of well documented archaeological research done in the Midwest which had resulted in an enormous amount of data and artifacts.
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Pattern |
Phase | Aspect | Focus |
| LateWoodland | Upper | Oneota | Orr |
| Blue Earth | |||
| No Aspect | Silvernale | ||
| Great Oasis | |||
| Cambria | |||
| Plaines | Head Waters Lake | Black Duck | |
| Red River | Arvilla |
W.C. McKern led a meeting of archaeologists, who began with the assumption that there is a relation between cultural origins, cultural history and the artifacts they used. The classification then takes artifacts from the smallest possible unit, the component, and grouped them with nearby sites. The nearby sites with similar artifacts are grouped with this into the next level, and this level is grouped with similar ones, and so on. In this manner, they developed a system that didn't rely on chronological and spatial areas for their cultural definitions, but in similarities between their technologies.
The Midwest Taxonomic System, or McKern System, was adapted to Minnesota archaeology by Lloyd Wilford in 1944 and later refined in 1951. His system took the two identified patterns in Minnesota and fit the three major cultural patterns identified for Minnesota into four periods.
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This chart is updated version of Lloyd Wilford's adaptation of the Midwestern Taxonomic System, to Minnesota.
The background colors indicate approximately which period the components would fall into, cells highlighted in grey occupy two distinct or transitional patterns.
| Pattern | Phase | Aspect | Focus |
| Late Woodland | Upper Mississippian | Oneota | Orr |
| Blue Earth | |||
| No Aspect | Silvernale | ||
| Cambria | |||
| Plains | Great Oasis | ||
| Lake
Michigan
(Occupies the Beginning of the Late Woodland Period) |
Head Waters Lake | Black Duck | |
| Red River | Arvilla | ||
| East Center | Shakopee | ||
| Middle Woodland | Rum River | ||
| Ogechee | |||
| Mille Lacs | Kathio | ||
| Malmo | |||
| Laurel | Smith | ||
| McKinstry | |||
| Pike Bay | |||
| Southern Minnesota | Fox Lake | ||
| Effigy Mound | Effigy Mound | ||
| Hopewellian | No Aspect | Howard Lake | |
| Swan Lake | |||
| Early Woodland | No Phase | La Moille | La Moille |
| Archaic | Old Copper | Petaga Point | Petaga Point |
| White Oak | White Oak | ||
| Northern Lake | Border Lakes | Far North | |
| Paleo-Indian | No Phase | Brown's Valley | Brown's Valley |
| Clovis Folsum | Clovis Folsum |
Wilford, Lloyd. "A Revised Classification of the Prehistoric Cultures of Minnesota." American Antiquity. Vol XXI, 2, 1955.
Fagan, Brian M. Ancient North America. Thames and Hudson, 1995.
Jennings, Jesse D. Prehistory of North America. McGraw-Hill, 1968.
Wilford, Lloyd A. "A Revised Classification of the Prehistoric Cultures of Minnesota." American Antiquity XXI, 2, 1955.
Wilford, Lloyd A. "A Tentative Classification of the Prehistoric Cultures of Minnesota." American Antiquity 3, 1941.