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.