New evidence that emerges, as archaeologists, historians, and biologists
compare American cultures and life forms with cultures and life forms in
Africa, Europe, and Asia, may confirm or disprove these arrivals. Keeping up
with such evidence is a lot of work. To tell about earlier explorers, textbook
authors would have to familiarize themselves with sources such as those cited
in the three preceding notes. It’s easier just to retell the old familiar Columbus
story.
Most of the textbooks I studied at least mention the expeditions of the Norse.
These daring sailors reached America in a series of voyages across the North
Atlantic, establishing communities on the Faeroe Islands, Iceland, and
Greenland. The Norse colony on Greenland lasted five hundred years (982- c.
1500), as long as the European settlement of the Americas until now. From
Greenland a series of expeditions, some planned, some accidental, reached
various parts of North America, including Baffin Land, Labrador,
Newfoundland, and possibly New England.