Yes, that's what I was going off of. If the Indians had ships, they would have been just as developed as us, it appears.
They were forced to be excellent farmers because they did not have the large land mammals like Africa, Europe and Asia to eat. Greater than 50% of today's worldwide food crops were developed in the Americas by these people.
The lack of large mammals is why they had no need for the wheel.
Wheels and metal refining would have helped too. (They did have wheeled toys.) Perhaps bison were not as tame as oxen.