There were more than 500 different Indian tribal cultures that existed in North America before the first Europeans arrived. They had lived in America already thousands of years, but for Europeans this continent was unknown until 15 century. Every schoolboy knows that Columbus is the discoverer of the "New World." This traditional fact is quite ironic, because the "hero" even did not understood that he had found a new continent - he thought he was in India.

The earliest explorers of America were not English, Spanish or French as usually is said. The first Europeans in America were Scandinavians. The Old Norse Vinland Saga describes how adventurous Leif Eriksson and his men settled briefly somewhere on the north-east coast of America (probably Nova Scotia in Canada). Their voyage took place in the end of the 10th century, more than 400 years before the next recorded European discovery of the...