There are/were pre-Columbian American wheels. Some examples:
These are all toys. Note that one of them consists of the animal on what is essentially a cart, rather than wheels attached to the feet. So, we have many surviving examples of pre-Columbian wheels, but no evidence that wheeled vehicles were used. This is often explained by the lack of suitable large animals for domestication for traction - no draft animals, therefore no wheeled vehicles; one of the better known proponents of this "explanation" is Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel. However, this isn't a sufficient explanation - just consider the many human-powered wheeled vehicles we use today: the wheelbarrow, the shopping cart, the janitor's trolley, etc. One doesn't need draft animals to use carts to move considerable loads; human can provide the necessary muscle power:
Mesoamerica is not the only place to have known of wheels and not used wheeled vehicles. Ancient Egypt only adopted wheeled vehicles with the war chariot c. 1600BC, despite their neighbours in Mesopotamia - with whom they were in contact with - having used oxcarts for well over a thousand years before then. Wheeled vehicles were notably lacking in sub-Saharan Africa for most of its history. Wheeled vehicles were in use in the ancient Middle East, but largely fell out of use in the 1st half of the first millenium AD. Japan was in contact with China, where wheeled vehicles were in use, but wheeled vehicles saw very limited us in pre-modern Japan. Mesoamerica was far from unique in not eagerly adopting the wheeled vehicle (whether animal-pulled or human pulled/pushed). Clearly, transport needs can be met by pack animals and human porters, and water transport.
But isn't wheeled transport much more efficient than pack animals and porters? Generally, yes. But there is more to life than efficiency. Rail transport is more efficient than wheeled vehicles on roads, but we have many more wheeled vehicles on our roads than we have wheeled vehicles on our rails. Building and maintaining railroads is expensive, and this expense only becomes worth the investment when more than a certain amount of goods will be moved along the railroad, between the places connected by the railroad. But the same thing can be said for wheeled vehicles and roads: roads need to be built and maintained, and roads suitable for vehicles can be difficult to build in rugged terrain, and this expense will only be worth the investment when a sufficient quantity of goods will be moved along the road, between the places connected by the road. Pack animals and porters can be the best choice, economically.
References:
For an overview of wheels and wheeled vehicles: Bulliet, Richard. The Wheel: Inventions and Reinventions, Columbia University Press, 2016
For the disappeared of wheeled vehicles in the Middle East: Richard W. Bulliet, The Camel and the Wheel, Harvard University Press, 1975
For the "no draft animals, therefore no wheeled vehicles" argument: Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, Norton, 1997
The first two toys linked above were previously linked by u/HonorInDefeat in https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/34gy6s/was_the_wheel_really_unknown_in_the_americas/ which also has past relevant discussion linked by u/Mictlantecuhtli
Thank you
