The Aleuts - quiet Columbuses

I learned in U of British Columbia in the 60s from a very conventional anthropology professor whose actions and observations may be considered colonial these days , Wilson Duff, about a simple historical fact that really poses yet another devastating question about the myth that America was discovered by Europeans in the 15th century "AD". He was showing artifacts he had "collected" from an ancient site in the Queen Charlottes. There were small Japanese carvings. Wow, I thought, but he was nonchalant. He said there has always been trade of small goods along the entire Pacific rim via the Aleuts. Say what?

So if I am an enterprising ancient Siberian trader, say in 500 BCE, and i had the money and motivation, without sailing across uncharted waters I could easily accompany my bag of trade goods to Mexico. And who is to say it did not happen? Almost certainly, Japanese and other Asian art was influenced by Native American art and vice-verse.