On this date in 1763, the Treaty of Paris ended the Seven Year’s War, also known as the French and Indian War.  The French and Spanish were expelled from what would become the United States, leaving Great Britain as the sole colonial power.  From New York to Florida, the impacts to Native Americans were profound.

We take one example from Florida.  The British and the Spanish traded St. Augustine for Havana.  The Spanish evacuated the former for the latter.  Along with them were eighty-nine Indians, some of the last survivors of decades of British slaving raids.  They included Manuel Riso and Juan Alonso Cavale, the last Timucuan-speaking people on earth.  As they stepped onto the boat and pushed off from the Florida coast, twelve thousand years of memories went with them.