[U S Army EOD]

The people not the boats. I think there was a land bridge plus North African influence in Central America. The reason for the land bridge theory is because Eskimos in Alaska are related to ones is Siberia. They actually physically know each other. You can see Russia from Alaska. During an Ice Age the ocean would be low and it would be very easy to walk across. They had probably already done it a few times in small boats.

There were some Western tribes that built large ocean going fishing vessels that rivaled the Viking long ships. I think this is the crowd my uncle stayed with when he was on the West Coast. They had been using the sea for 100's of years to fish in. But they did not know how to sail against the wind.

[muawiyah]

The Japanese who arrived in Arizona in the 1300s definitely knew how to sail against the wind. No doubt they abandoned the practice living out in the desert. The Haida probably didn't consider it all that worthwhile since they did their whaling quite close to shore and could paddle back and forth in the absence of wind. I think I noticed a gasoline motor mounted on the side of one of their boats that went out whaling last year.

Still, the absence of an observation of a particular element of sailing technology does not mean it did not exist in the area.