There's an exhibit in Washington, D.C. about Esteban (Estevanico). He is featured in a historical section about Muslims in America in the 1500s. The exhibit is in America's Islamic Heritage Museum & Cultural Center, and credits Esteban as being the first known Muslim to arrive in what is now the United States. The center opened in 2011.
Esteban was a Moroccan slave taken by Spaniards in an ill-fated invasion of Florida in 1528, traveled across the continent with three Spaniards, and became the first non-Indian to enter the present-day states of Arizona and New Mexico in 1539. Although converted while a slave in Spain to Catholicism, Esteban's heritage was Islamic and Arabic was one of several languages he could speak.
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