Yes, the Vikings and others before him came and visited these lands. However, to discover means to uncover, or make known. The illiterate Vikings never wrote about or told others of their travels."
What an ignorant thing for the author to say.
To say the general population of the "Vikings" population where illiterate in their own language(s) to any greater degree than the rest of general population of Europe was illiterate in their own languages, is absurd. [1]
Were the people of Greenland or Iceland illiterate in English or French or Latin? The vast majority, no doubt. Were the Italians, Spaniards, or English illiterate in Norwegian, Swedish or Dutch? The vast majority, no doubt.
If one is to suggest that the "Vikings" where illiterate, one must also suggest that the rest of Europe was illiterate as well. Which means there is no purpose to state the Vikings were illiterate other than in an attempt to subvert history.
Furthermore, to state that the "Vikings" "never wrote about or told others of their travels." is yet another absurdity.
Did they have scripts widely published in Rome about their travels around the 1000's? No, of course not. But Rome, or Paris, or Madrid, or London were not the entirety of the world.
But they never told others? Of course they told others, because others made their own voyages to North America over the ensuing decades. Bjarni Herjólfsson (voyaged from Norway)(is said to not have made landfall) in 986 AD -> Leif Eriksson (from Greenland) in 1000 was the first to make landfall and set up a settlement -> followed by Thorvald Eiriksson (from Greenland) in 1004 and then Thorfinn Karlsefni (from Greenland) in 1009 [2][3][4].
Beginning with Herjólfsson in 986...each group of explorers TOLD their stories to others...who subsequently revisited North America.
As far as relatively recent Europeans go, Leaf Erickson "discovered" North America, Christopher Columbus popularized it.
And for the record...no, I don't think Christopher Columbus Day should be renamed indigenous people's day (see below).
I do, however, think our nation should also celebrate Leif Erickson Day. [5]
Presidential Proclamation on Leif Erikson Day, 2019
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Now, if we want our history to be even more complete, we must look further back...much further to the people from the area of what is today France and Spain.
It's a growing theory (though one clearly going against the PC winds), that "Europeans" migrated to the America's thousands of years before the "East Asians" did...and were either killed off by the larger migrating groups from east asia, or were "integrated" into their groups from east asia, occurring either in the America's and/or in far eastern Siberia.
European style stone tools suggest Stone Age people actually discovered America
By Bob Yirka | February 29, 2012
"...Stone tools found recently in Delaware, Maryland and Virginia in the eastern United States, all appear to bear a striking resemblance to tools used by Stone Age peoples in early Europe, and have been dated to a time between 19,000 and 26,000 years ago, a period during which Stone Age people were making such tools, and long before the early Asians arrived.
...The evidence is further bolstered by the recent discovery that an ancient knife found in Virginia in 1971 was made of flint that originated from France.
...Stanford and Bradley also point out the lack of evidence of any human activity in the north-east part of Siberia or in Alaska any earlier than 15,500 years ago. And the reason early Asians won out, evolving into the people now called Native Americans, was because their window of opportunity was much wider, 15,000 years versus just 4500 for the early Europeans. Thus the original Native Americans were either assimilated or killed by the large numbers of migrating Asians. Evidence that it was likely the former has been found in the DNA of skeletons of North American Native American people. Also, the language of several Native American tribes doesn’t seem to have originated from Asia."
https://phys.org/news/2012-02-european-style-stone-tools-age.html
Stone-age Europeans 'were the first to set foot on North America'
By Matthew Day | 4:12PM GMT 28 Feb 2012
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/9110838/Stone-age-Europeans-were-the-first-to-set-foot-on-North-America.html
Scientists have unearthed ancient artifacts that are upending the history of mankind
By Dan Conover | June 13, 2012
https://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/charleston/scientists-have-unearthed-ancient-artifacts-that-are-upending-the-history-of-mankind/Content?oid=4092912
Out of Europe
By Dan McLerran | Jun 1, 2013
"...New excavations in the southeastern U.S. and the mid-Atlantic were yielding artifacts dated to pre-Clovis times. Sites like Meadowcroft Rock Shelter in Pennsylvania, Cactus Hill in Virginia, Miles Point and Oyster Cove on the Chesapeake Bay, as well as the offshore Cinmar site, to name but a few, all revealed lithic artifacts arguably dated thousands of years before the oldest Clovis points found across North America. And like the Cinmar point and other points uncovered throughout the eastern U.S. and at underwater locations off the eastern seaboard, the Solutrean assemblages found in Europe, and more specifically southwestern France and northeastern Spain, shared remarkably similar characteristics.
“The majority of the oldest dated sites in the Americas with undisputed artifacts are in the Chesapeake Bay region,” maintains Stanford. “The artifacts from these LGM (the Last Glacial Maximum, between 26,000 and 20,000 years ago) sites are technological and functional equivalents of artifacts from the same period found in southwestern Europe and are not technologically or morphologically related to any east Asian technology."
"Projectile points and their corresponding ages, found at sites in eastern North America. The first artifact on the far left represents a typical point of the Solutrean type, found in Europe. Courtesy Dennis Stanford"
"The LGM ice cover in the North Atlantic at the time when Solutrean peoples are hypothesized to have crossed over from Europe to the Americas. Courtesy Dennis Stanford"
"Map showing the exposed continental shelf along southwestern France and northwestern Spain, with known Solutrean sites. Also shown are concave based points from Spain, representing the types of artifacts of the period that show similarities to the Clovis and pre-Clovis artifacts found in eastern North America. Courtesy Dennis Stanford"
"Distribution of known Solutrean-style laurel leaf biface artifacts in the mid atlantic coastal and continental shelf areas, showing extent of dry land during the LGM. Courtesy Dennis Stanford"
https://popular-archaeology.com/article/out-of-europe/
Ancient DNA Links Native Americans With Europe
Michael Balter | 25 Oct 2013
http://science.sciencemag.org/content/342/6157/409