>How did your ancestors get here?
They fled from France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Pretty much all of the Protestant Huguenots were driven out after the Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre. On Dad's side it was the Highland Clearances that drove the Highlander's out of Caithness after the Battle of Culloden. Fortunately for them there was a legal path to immigration to Canada and eventually the USA.
The matter was pretty much settled by then, at least on the East Coast. Family In Newfoundland arrived well after the Beothuk extirpation, lived in Nova Scotia in relative harmony with the Mi'kmaq, and Massachusetts after Massasoit destroyed most of the colony, and was abandoned by his fellow indigenous 'allies' at Shagticoke. Many natives sought to be intermediaries of trade goods and prospered or sought to align with European factions for their own advantage.
The indigenous people welcomed us. They loved pots and pans, smoothbores, axes, knives, the wheel, draft animals, flint and steel, and especially the position of superior trade partner with their brethren tribes.