i can't remember the source off the top of my head...but there is some circumstantial evidence to prove at lease one viking ship load of people made it down to South America! for when the spanish were exploring they did come across a small tribe of blonde people...or it could have just been a genetic mutation...![]()
There's a good deal more genetic variety in the Native American pool than we usually care to acknowledge. While blond is certainly not what you'd expect to see, it needn't be proof of contact with Vikings. It could be no more than a survival of a pocket of the gene pre-epidemic.
There are similar stories about blond Indians from Canada (the Beothuk) and IIRC somewhere in the Midwest. I have yet to see any good data (then again, it's not like I've actively looked). And we have the Kennewick Man
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennewick_Man
Just to make things more complicated. (a remarkably balanced article for contentious a subject)