An Indian of five thousand years ago would simply pick the larger seeded plants and by planting those seeds hope that his or her crop would produce larger seeds than those produced the previous year. Using a basic process such as this produces results almost immediately. Sunflowers in the Amos Owen Garden were produced by using a similar technique with decorative sunflowers. 80 years ago I was able to produce these plants in just a few years. Specifically I was trying for a plant with one large flower head and multiple smaller flower heads.
Sunflowers are high in oil and thus high in energy.
They were threshed and mashed, boiled, skimmed and molded into balls which were food for travelers. The Indians distinguished between the seeds of the large heads and those of the smaller heads, considering the latter to be of superior taste. The common pumpkin can take on some forms which don't seem so common. The zucchini is a pumpkin as is the acorn squash, the patapan, and the yellow crookneck squashes. The pumpkins planted here are green and white striped pumpkins perhaps from the Omaha Indians, but once grown widely in the area.