Which came first? The Chicken or the Italian?

Interesting.

In our Hawaiian History classes, we've been taught that the first Polynesian settlers (from the Marquesas and Raiatea, anyway) came to Hawaii in the 11th century. I wouldn't be surprised if other Polynesian seafarers found their way to the Americas at the same time. European contact was not made in the Islands till about the 16th century, IIRC.

For anyone that's interested, the Polynesian Voyaging Society was created in the mid-1970s to prove that the first Polynesians could have navigated the vast Pacific Ocean without the aid of nautical instruments. Thirty years later, the PVS is still going strong with their two replicas of ancient canoes -- the Hokule`a and Hawai`iloa, and they've sailed thousands of miles to and from the South Pacific and also to Rapa Nui (Easter Island) in 1999.

It's always been my dream to sail on the Hokule`a one day.

[Drolefille]

I didn't think it was suprising that Columbus wasn't the first here. He wasn't even the first European.

[UGAalum94]

This may seem stupid:

Since there were people settled in the Americas before either of these groups, I think, you're really just seeing who was the first to arrive on the scene after the continents were inhabited or am I missing something?

It seems to me that Columbus's importance has been in being a European Renaissance figure who stirred up interest in the New World in terms of colonial expansion and financial exploitation. Not an entirely good claim to fame, but a significant one.

Even if Polynesian explorers were on the continent first, it doesn't change much about the cultural history, does it?

What am I missing?

[Kevlar281]

Doesn’t matter to me, I’ll keep serving lasagna next to the turkey on Thanksgiving.