(I know it's been a few years, but this is worth mentioning.)
I agree, MikeSol. If I could change one thing about the game, I would have some of that basic information show on the right when you highlight a settlement: what it wants & offers, and what (if anything) it will still teach. Not having that information would tell you you haven't visited that settlement yet.
A great workaround would be something like the
Gold Box Companion, a program running in a separate window that reads from the game and displays information for you. This could show you a copy of the map--what you've explored so far--and clicking on an Indian settlement would show the information about it. For people with two screens, that could run in the other screen and you could just mouse over to it when you need some quick info.