During my formative years in kindergarten and elementary school I remember the nursery book rhyme taught to all of us children. "In fourteen-hundred and ninety two Columbus sailed the ocean blue." We had school plays that tried to recreate his intrepid ocean journey. I wasn't the best at remembering lines, so I played the part of the Pinta, one of Columbus' ships. As most school children are taught, we learned about how he was the first to discover the Americas, that he was a merchant looking for a trade route to India, that he was the first to prove the world was round, and that if it wasn't for him America as we know it would not be here.

As I grew up, other historical facts started to tarnish the pristine image of Columbus. Leif Erickson of the Vikings was actually the first known European to see the...