Doug Outwater, age 11, of Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, for his question:
Who was the first white woman seen by the Indians?
If we decide to accept certain evidence, we can believe the Indians wished they had never seen this lady. However, nobody was there to make a written report of the event; and certainly there were no cameras around to photograph the interview. In fact, the evidence is so indirect that many refuse to believe it at all.
It is true that Columbus discovered the New World way back in 1492. But he certainly was not the first and, what's more, he made two whopping mistakes about his discovery. He thought he had sailed clear around to the other side of the world and found a westward sea route to India. Thinking himself in India, he assumed that the people he found here were Indians. Of course, they were not. When we wish to be courteous we refer to the orig¬inal Americans as American Indians or Amerindians. Archeologists assure us that their ancestors came here from Asia and settled the New World many thousands of years ago. They discovered America ages before Columbus.
There is a lot of indirect evidence to indicate that the sea roving Vikings also discovered America before Columbus. They reported the details of their daring deeds in songs and long, poetic stories called sagas. Later these sagas were written down and here we find detailed and believable reports of Viking voyages to America. They occurred around 1000 A.D. The Vikings, of course, were blond Norsemen from Northern Europe. Their most famous hero was Eric the Red who settled and ruled Greenland. It was his son, Leif the Lucky, who navigated the first Viking ship from Greenland to North America. He named his discovery Vinland.
Leif Ericson's reports of the New World stirred other Vikings to voyage westward across the Atlantic. Thorfinn Karlsefni organized an expedition of three ships carrying 160 men and women. The sagas report that one of the women was named Cudrid and another was Freydis’ sister of Leif Ericson and daughter of Eric the Red. The party intended to stay and settle . in the New World. But even the bold Vikings were no match for the original Americans who were there before them. The Vikings called them Skraelings and the fierce Skraelings made settlement impossible and drove the bold Vikings back home.
The first meeting was peaceable and Old World cloth was traded for New World furs. Later the Amerindians returned to attack the Viking camp and most of the women stayed safely behind the stockade. But not Freydis. As the Skraelings battered the door, she opened it to face them. Seizing the sword of a fallen Viking she stood there, boldly laughing her defiance. The sight of this brave, blonde woman was too much for the Amer¬indians. They stared for a moment in astonishment and then turned tail and ran from the Viking settlement. Perhaps they were overwhelmed by the idea of a fighting female ¬perhaps they were wowed by the first blonde woman they had ever seen.
The brave stand of Freydis did not decide the issue of the conflict. The odds were too great and Tharfinn brought his expedition back to Greenland. Not, however, before another newsworthy event had occurred. Gudrid gave birth to a son and the name they gave him was Snorri. If we can trust the sagas, and most experts do, this was indeed an historic expedition. The Amerindians got their first look at a fair skinned woman and the first white baby was born in America.