Entry Type: Species
Species Name: Cucurbita pepo -L.-
Common Name: pumpkin, acorn squash, crookneck, summer squash, zucchini
Myaamia Name: eemhkwaani
Description:
Harvest Seasons: Summer
Harvest Comments:
Habitats: Dry Prairie grasslands, Wet Prairie grasslands with flooding, Conifer Shrubland and Forest
Uses: Food
Locations: Undetermined
Reference Type: Use - Food
Archival Data:
Domestic pumpkins are used in a contemporary griddle-cake recipe.
Comments: N/A
Reference Type: Use - Food
Archival Data:
Squash and pumpkins were brought to the missionaries for eating.
Comments: N/A
Reference Type: Use - Food
Archival Data:
Pumpkins were cultivated, dried, cooked with meat and corn and eaten. "There are abundant and excellent pumpkins. They have a mode of drying them that is not common to all the nations of this region by which they keep from one year to the next. They scrape the rind well, and take out all the inside, and cut them into slices full circle and an inch thick. They let them wither for a day in the air, after which they tie them together, putting as many as five pumpkins together in this way. They expose them to the sun for several days, which dries them out to such a degree that they break like a turnip. They cook this with meat and Indian corn. It is a great treat among them. The French always make a liberal provision of this" ("Des citrouilles en quantite qui sont excelentes elles ont une mainere de les faire secher, ce que n'ont point toutes les autres nations de ces contrees icy leqlles. elles concervent d'une annee a l'autre elles grattent bien la peau et ostent tout le dedans et les coupent par tranches de l'epaisseur d'un poulce de toute leur rondeur Et les laissent fauer un jour a l'air apres quoy elles le Lassent l'une avec l'autre Et mettent d maniere jusqu'a cinq citrouilles Ensemble Et les Exposent au soleil plussieurs jours ou elles sechent d'une maniere quelles se cassent comme un navet, ou en met cuire parmy la Viande et le Bled d'inde mesle c'est un grand regal parmy eux, Les francois en font toujours bonne provision").
Comments: N/A
Reference Type: Use - Food
Archival Data:
Two types of pumpkins are cultivated and eaten, "common pumpkins and Illinois" (". . . Citrouilles communes et illinoises").
Comments: N/A
Reference Type: Use - Food
Archival Data:
"powdered part/piece of meat, pumpkin, etc."
Comments: N/A
Reference Type: Use - Food
Archival Data:
Human-charred cucurbit material was recoverd from an early 19th century Myaamia village site at the forks of the Wabash River (Ft Wayne) 1795-1812 (Ehler Site). Charred materials were flower scars that most closely matched acorn-type squash.
Comments: N/A
Reference Type: Horticultural Info
Archival Data:
Gourds [some species are in the genus Cucurbita], watermelons and sunflowers are first sprouted in a hot-bed, then transplanted into a crop field.
Comments: N/A
Reference Type: Use - Food
Archival Data:
Gourds or "pompions" grown as a food crop.
Comments: N/A
Reference Type: Use - Food
Archival Data:
Barbara Mullin's mother, Julia Lankford, placed pumpkins in a pressure cooker and prepared them for caning. Her grandmother and great grandmother dried pumpkins for storage.
Comments: N/A
Reference Type: Use - Food
Archival Data:
Wild/domesticated pumpkins were grown.
Comments: N/A
Reference Type: Use - Food
Archival Data:
Pumpkins having yellowish skin and orange flesh were cultivated and eaten.
Comments: N/A
Reference Type: Related Info
Archival Data:
Miami-Illinois terms for pumpkin also include "Keekēēshondoa hāāmuhkwaunau" meaning 'cut up the pumpkins' in Miami-Illinois.
Comments: N/A
Reference Type: Habitat
Archival Data :
A cultivated species in the Americas for thousands of years, of unknown origin, and having numerous modern cultivars and forms. A related wild species in Myaamia lands is Cucurbita foetidissima.
Comments: N/A
Reference Type: Habitat
Archival Data :
C. foetidissima wild pumpkin occurs in dry soils in western and potentially in eastern Myaamia.
Comments: N/A
Reference Type: Use - Food
Archival Data:
Barbara Mullin's recipe for dried pumpkins: "Cut ripe pumpkin in rings, remove the peeling hang on a stick before the fire near enough to dry slowly. This may be stored until ready for use. To prepare it should be washed and cooked any way you like pumpkin. The Indians often ate it dried".
Comments: N/A
Reference Type: Related Info
Archival Data:
A single Curcurbita pepo rind fragment was found at the Riverton archaeological site, on the Wabash River, near present day Vicennes Indiana, dating to approximately 3200 B.P.
Comments: N/A
Reference Type: Related Info
Archival Data:
"ämxkwani", wild pumpkin
Comments: N/A