“The Viking (re-)discovery of America was accurately recorded”
Do you mean “rediscovery” since the Native Americans had discovered it thousands of years before?
My education was very Eurocentric. I favor more balance.
For example in public schools now they teach more about the Indians. When I grew up it was mostly about the Explorers and missionaries.
I was born here, so I’m a native American. That’s the only real criteria I’d accept. Unless human origins in general are from the Americas, there is no group that can claim to be native per se. NAGPRA is an abomination, figures McCain supports it.
By rediscovery, I mean, the oceans are not barriers to maritime people, and there is and always has been plenty of evidence for visitors. I used to think there was evidence for PreColumbian Americans from a Roman account, but I’ve also seen it written that it was faked (no doubt by some “Native American” nationalist; in the 1960s some leftwing demagogue concocted a bogus claim that the name “America” didn’t come from Amerigo Vespucci — btw, yes it did — but from some tribe in the Central America — btw no it didn’t). OTOH, Basque is generally considered a language isolate, but...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/1642165/posts?page=22#22
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3164863/posts?page=18#18