My writer brain cannot afford to be distracted but I'm so fascinated! (My aunt and uncle lived in Yale, MI long ago, and I have happy memories of visiting their farm. We would drive across the border to Canada [no passports!] and eat delicious Chinese food in a basement.)
My memory tells me that I've seen the phrase "human settlements" previously, but no later than high school (so not in the past 40 years, at least). I never questioned why it was "human settlements" instead of "settlements," but now I suspect it was due to not attributing it to a specific country.
So either native american, or by unknown settlers.