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This article discusses the disconnect that occurs when settlers assume they are coming into a wilderness and are the bearers of civilization to the area. In the case of the early colonization of Canada's British Columbia, settlers were unaware of the existence of a previous settlement of Indians with cultural heritage. It has been only in the past few decades that scholars have begun to recognize the effects of Indians on the landscape and environment of North America before the arrival of European settlers. The article also discusses the indigenous inhabitants and the early colonists in North Carolina.