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First off, this is NOT a Norse/Vinland saga.

Instead, what if some Native American culture developed an equivalent maritime culture such that they have large seagoing vessels (significantly larger than OTL dugouts and canoes)?

Assume something on par with early Med ships or Viking "clinker" style, basically a large, multi-oared ocean-capable ship with room enough for a trading or raiding party and their supplies/trade goods/plunder to travel far from their home villages. Sails are optional. While there were many quite advanced maritime cultures, afaik none developed boats larger than good-sized dugouts. However, there's afaik no reason why they *couldn't* have if they'd set their minds to it.

What would be required? Sedentary maritime lifestyles? Metal tools? (I think it's possible to construct some simple ships without metal tools, though the tools obviously greatly simplify the process.) Domesticated something?

And who might accomplish such?

The Pacific NW cultures, (Tlinget, Salish, Haida, Chinook, etc.) offer one possibility. They're already approaching sedentary village lifestyle owing to the bounty of natural goods in the area. They already have a semi-hierarchical culture of "big men" earning greater influence and honors, typically through the "potlatch" dinner-party politics system. Could some new factor tip them towards chiefdomship? Some domesticated crops or aquaculture? Domesticated animals? Reindeer?!? Could they develop primitive coppersmithing? There's certainly available metallic copper thanks to the many rivers and glaciers of the area. If you really want to get wild you could have the Days of Rice and Salt scenario of lost Chinese ship(s) caught in the prevailing currents to introduce whatever.

The Carib/Arawak cultures had a sophisticated boat culture possibly on par with the Polynesians. Assuming one of the "big island" groups like the Taino (Haiti) had the wherewithal...

If you want to take the "viking" aspect semi-literally perhaps the Mimak or Beothuk absorbing the remnants and (skilled) survivors of a failed Norse colony...

And now what? Could a far-ranging maritime culture speed the introduction of domesticated crops and technology and ideas across the New World? Could *Amero-Viking* raiders bridge Aztec/Maya to Inca to Mississippian? Could we see a "reverse-Vinland" scenario with Native shipwrights discovering and being repulsed by Europeans?

Thoughts??
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