The Moral a Priori and the Diversity of Cultures

Abstract

In 1851, twenty-one white pioneers settled in the fertile area called Puget Sound near the Pacific Ocean, about 120 miles south of where the Canadian border now runs. After peaceful negotiations with the native Duwamish Indians, they named the settlement Seattle after the chief of the Duwamish tribe. Three years of more or less harmonious coexistence followed; then Franklin Pierce, fourteenth president of the United States, urged the Duwamish to make room for more settlers by withdrawing to an island reservation.