Tolerant is a good word to know the meaning of. One of the highest complements you can receive is to be told that you are tolerant.
It means that you are accepting of other cultures. It does not mean indifferent. Indifferent has the additional meaning of not caring about other cultures which would make the population asleep or closed in.
It does not mean unaware. That would make the native population uncaring about what's around them. They certainly don't have to be that way.
Forgiving is too strong a word. It means that there was conflict and the native populations have forgiven the populations for some transgression.
