This is a very Eurocentric view of the new world. Asia had already settled in the Americas by South Pacific Islanders and the north by baring land bridge. And the northeast had Viking settlements.
This evidence is new in the same way that Steve jobs invented the point and click GUI
It is not who got here first. It is who stayed and changed the world.
The (re)discovery of America in 1492 is arguably the most important discovery in history. It changed everything in very deep ways. Europe started looking outwards while Asia stayed looking inwards.
If the voyages of the South Pacific Islanders and the Vikings were admirable, then surely so was that of Columbus? It's not as though they had better maps than he did.
The dude sailed boats in the unknown to give humanity new horizons. Who cares if he was wrong at the start.