Whenever a question like this comes up, I always like to mention the account of Monacht-Ape, a Native American man who reported criss-crossed what is now the United States in the 1600s. While this is post-Columbian, his journey was independent of European influences and shows an extreme example of what someone could do.

Long before Columbus arrived, we also have good evidence that Hopewell-era traders / pilgrims (perhaps not different roles in Hopewellian thought) were making some long-distance journeys between 200 BCE and 400 CE. In this context "Hopewell" refers to a collection of shared ceremonial, artistic, and architectural traditions that flourished in the Ohio and Mississippi Valley at this time, before the later and more famous Mississippian cultures like Cahokia emerged). The Scioto Hopewell of Ohio weren't the originators of these traditions-that honor appears to belong to the Havanna Hopewell of southern Illinois-but they soon became the epicenter of the Hopewell Interaction Sphere. It's sort of analogous to how Christianity emerged in Judea but Rome and Constantinople became the dominant influences on the faith shortly thereafter.

Among the artifacts of the Scioto Hopewell, we find items made from silver from northern Ontario, copper from Lake Superior, shells from the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, shark and alligator teeth, meteoric iron from the Plains, grizzly bear claws and obsidian from the Rockies, and more. The distribution of these materials, especially the obsidian, suggests that many of these items didn't arrived by down-the-line trade where a community near the source passes some to a community a little further away, who passes some on to a community still further away, until it reaches its destination. It seems more likely that the the Scioto Hopewell themselves were traveling to Yellowstone to collect the obsidian for themselves, in order to craft enormous ornamental / ceremonial spearheads among other items.

The Scioto Hopewell also created many depictions of animals in their artwork. Most depict animals common in Ohio, such as hawks, herons, raccoons, beavers, etc. But there are a few unusual ones like grizzly bears, bighorn sheep, and ocelots. These are often less realistically depicted than more familiar animals, suggesting the artist was either working from fading memories or from descriptions brought back from travelers.