[jcranmer]

> To migrate over long distances you don't by definition need to return, so the people you left have no idea where you went.

That sure sounds like discussing one-way colonization to me.

Also, the islands I discussed (save Madagascar, which is a full-on continental crust fragment and is the fourth-largest island in the world) are all volcanic islands, not atolls--the Azores are actually the highest point in Portugal.

The Caribs did expand into the Caribbean Islands, many of which are smaller than, say, the Falklands. It's highly unlikely that large islands would have remained unsettled by neighboring tribes if they could have reached them--especially since we know that the distances involved do seem to preclude them having been reached. Oceanic transport is not a trivial invention.

[moo]

I didn't say atoll. Migrate doesn't mean you have to colonize every way point.The op also said "fishing expedition" which doesn't mean colonization. You don't have to marry the first person you have sex with either. Tule reeds are common in North America. Totora reeds grow in South America. Chumash regularly traveled 22 miles between what is now Catalina Islands and LA. The Chumash are best known for their sewn-plank canoe called a tomol that ranged up to 30 feet long. Cuba is 93 miles from Florida. Pre-Columbian South Americans built reed boats. Heyerdahl went 5,000 miles across the Pacific in a reed boat. Falkland Islands are 300 miles east of South American southern Patagonia coast. Pre-Incan pottery shards found in the Galapagos by Heyerdahl and Arne SkjolsvoId during an expedition to the archipelago in January 1953. Galapagos are 563 miles west of Ecuador. Regarding the Galapagos, Incan oral history tells of king Tupac Yupanqui voyage to the west and discovery of two "Islands of Fire." The Galapagos were not colonized either. Not everything in Caribbean Islands is tropical paradise. From worldwildlife.org: "Caribbean islands are often portrayed as lush tropical paradises, but Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao are better described as desert scrub. The three islands, known locally as the ABC’s, are located 40-80 km off the coast of Venezuela just 12 N of the equator. Due to their leeward location, the islands receive only 350-550 mm of rain per year."

[dboreham]

The Falklands are a pretty poor example imho. The fact that people were not there does not imply they couldn't get there. If they had no sheep, there would be no point staying.

[moo]

I was responding to the assertion that European colonizers were discovering and claiming islands, specifically the Malvinas, from the backyard of indigenous peoples, of which they were totally ignorant.

[moo]

Taino Indians got to Cuba from the Yucatan, which is a 135 mile sea voyage. The Galapagos Islands have pre-Incan pottery, and they are 563 miles west of South America. The Falkland Islands are around 200 miles from Isla de los Estados Island (reached by Fuegian Indians). So the Falklands (Malvinas) were very reachable. Very early Native American migrants were sea faring people who moved down along the North American and South American west coast then back up along the east coast. Haplogroup d4h3a found in bones at Prince of Wales Island on the Alaska panhandle, are 10,000 years old. Chumash who settled Channel Islands off southern California have haplogroup d4h3a, the Fuegians, who probably made it to the Falkland Islands, have haplogroup d4h3a. The Ainu people of Japan also built "lashed-canoes" -like the Chono and the Chumash (as well as dugouts), and they may have a link with the Amerindians. Like you say, oceanic transport is not trivial but Amerindians were doing it for distances over 100 miles for millennia.