Even though it's hypothetically possible that Europeans could have possibly discovered the New World prior to Amerindians, we can dismiss any thought that they somehow constituted the Indian or Inuit population. Amerindians are most closely related to southern Asians particularly in the present day countries of south China, Vietnam, Thailland, etc. That has been determined by anthropologists through the use of comparative bloodtypes, dna, and language similarities (glottochronology).

The Inuit, on the other hand, came from the Mongolian groups much later in time-- roughly only 3-4000 years ago if my memory is correct, and are so closely related to northern Sibrerians that they not only can speak to each other. They have get togethers by crossing the straights, and did so even when tensions were high between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.

Shalom,
Vern