Weatherall - love your 9.53.01 post!
Re the term "white settlers", I'm not defending it but I do know why some people have used it. My family come from a remote crofting community in the Highlands. All over the Highlands, there are similar communities where the local people were forced, over decades, to leave due to the land ownership system and the resulting lack of opportunities for ordinary local people. Large swathes of the Highlands are still owned by landlords from outwith Scotland who historically have blocked local attempts at economic development and essentially forced the local people out. At a micro level, incomers (often English) are able to buy houses which local people can't afford, and the local culture and traditions have struggled to survive. It can seem sometimes like a process of colonisation as the incomers often had the money and clout to change things to the way they wanted them. However, there has been an amazing revival in Highland culture and confidence coinciding with devolution - and one, which I am glad to say, is inclusive and involving both people whose families have lived in the Highlands for generations and people who arrived more recently from many different countries.
Notwithstanding, the current system of land ownership is a huge issue for the North of Scotland, and has only been addressed partly by community buy-out legislation. It is one of the things which Westminster will never want to reform, and another reason, IMO, for wanting independence.