But why did the people found living in what is now called North America when Europeans arrived in significant numbers, beginning in the 1300s or thereabouts (pick your own century), seemingly not know about the wheel?
The earliest known wheels, according to the article, date from ca. 3500 BC.
The last in-migration from Asia over the Bering land bridge occurred around 9000 BC. Other theories postulate other in-migrations, but these were also from places and times that didn’t have the wheel.
Of course, the Vikings might have brought the wheel ca. 1000 AD, but I haven’t heard of any evidence for that.
The Theory is that they didn’t have any animals that could pull a wagon or cart. The horse was native to North America but didn’t survive the ice age.
The bigger question is why they didn’t develop metal tools and weapons. At least in meso-america and S. American they had some pretty advanced skills,but mostly used them for artwork.
They lived in prehistoric societies isolated from the continents where all the action was.
Indigenous North Americans were in the Stone Age - they didn’t do metal, let alone the wheel. And the point of this article is that the wheel itself isn’t the big deal - it is the bearing which allows the wheel to turn which is the real deal. And you can’t make efficient, durable bearings out of wood or stone. In fact, ball and roller bearings are made of very high quality steel - anything less breaks down in a hurry under the concentrated, cyclic loads involved - and a damaged ball bearing produces more friction, not less, than a simple sliding bearing.
The photo example is PreColumbian, as a matter of fact. :’) The presence of the wheel is known, but the wheel was not observed to be in use when the Spanish and Portuguese, French, English, and Dutch got here. Even the use of metals was mostly limited to decoration. OTOH, in Tiahuanaco there was metal smelting and some use of metal in construction.
different societies invented different things at different points in time. Case in point the Jarawas in the Andaman island haven’t yet discovered how to start fire.