No

by Lane Weinberg

Created on: December 21, 2010

Obviously, St. Brendan was not and could not have been the first to discover 'America'. Depending on what you define ‘discovering’ as, the answer to who truly discovered 'America' (I use quotations, because at its discovery 'America' would not have BEEN America) varies.

Historically speaking the first people on the continent would have travelled over the bridge in pre-historic times. Since this bridge connected present day Alaska to what is now Siberia, it is reasonable to say one of two people originally crossed into the North American continent.

If speaking in pre-historical times than either the great ancestors of the Eastern European population crossed over the Beringia Bridge first, or more likely, early humans of Asian or Eurasian decent did so. However, most people whom ask the question of who discovered America first mean those who do not belong to the indigenous cultures we know to have been here for since 1492 when Columbus arrived.

Therefore, it's also impossible to say exactly who discovered North America as an outside source due to the fact no one ever recorded landing here besides Columbus. If not the Vikings then possibly some people from Central or South America must have stumbled upon North America and left no record of it.

It has been shown that Vikings had visited the North American continent several times in our past. According to Icelandic Sagas, in 985 A.D., Bjarni Herjolfsson, a Norse settler on his way to Greenland, was blown off course during a storm and sighted a landmass west of Greenland.

After returning to Scandinavia, Bjarni’s tale inspired other Vikings to go in search of this new landmass, including Leif Erickson, who made the journey around 1000 to 1002 AD. For that reason I would conclude that Leif Erickson would be the first European to discover North America as there is strong evidence to suggest he established a settlement somewhere in the Waquoit Bay, which is off the south shore of Cape Cod in Massachusetts.

The Vikings now called North America ‘Vinland’ and made many journeys to the country. The Norse explorers even made it as far into America as Oklahoma, where researchers discovered the Heavner Runestone. However, after the year 1400 AD there has been no evidence of any further contact between the Vikings and North America.

Besides this information there have been various other corroborating evidence to suggest an early Viking presence in North America. Most of their settlements failed and were abandoned due to conflicts with the natives. Recently a large mass grave was discovered which contained various Norse warriors decomposed remains with rusted and destroyed equipment, which seems to validate Viking conflicts with the indigenous peoples. 

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