Taking an optional class on historiography, and we were asked to debunk a common myth about United States and or North American history. I chose the myth that Columbus discovered America, and while I know that travel to the Americas basically came from all sides of the globe. With evidence from Phillipines/Japan/Siberia venturing to Hawaii/South America/Alaska respectively, and some evidence that peoples from Africa ventured into South America/Haiti, and of course the Viking expeditions into Newfoundland. I'm just looking for possible sources for my work, a few possible books, articles(peer reviewed preferred), and other primary sources if possible. I've read from some Sagas mentioning the travel to Newfoundland, referred to as Vinland. But not much else, looking for help! While I believe I know exactly where I want to go with this, I would of course take any information any of the Historians here would like to offer.
To direct you in the right track, you won't find any material of scholarly merit about African travels to South America. Japanese presence in South America has no solid archaeological evidence and only a small number of genetics studies that could possibly suggest a single, brief interaction. I would not recommend following either theory.
It sounds like you're starting from a good set of interesting questions! Regarding the Norse in Vinland, I think an invaluable comparison between the saga stories and the actual archaeological finds is:
Given your topic, you might also be interested in the epilogue:
If the volume isn't in your library, I'd recommend requesting the chapters individually through your inter-library loan (should be available through your regular library website). Often they'll email you pdfs in a matter of days, so you don't have to wait weeks for the book itself to arrive.
Regarding the other discovery stories, I'm generally skeptical about other claims of contact between the eastern and western hemispheres prior to Columbus. There's often some sort of political agenda that drives these claims. Of course, for a historiography class, it may be just as important to ask why there's always somebody who wants to rewrite the history of first contact with the Americas.
Insofar as I know, that could end up being a really interesting and innovative study. If you're looking for inspiration, some work has already been done on why some Americans and Canadians during the past hundred years or so have taken such an interest in rediscovering the history of Norse settlers in North America.
In a similar vein, there's been some interesting study of why "first settlements" have become so important to some people at various times. For Jamestown, see:
Good luck!