The Rock Island Argus

The news from Tucson shows an alarming activity among the hostile Indians, and the indications surely point to a joining of the Apache and White Mountain Bands. If such should be the case the danger of a general insurrection is imminent and disastrous consequences are sure to ensue. To be sure we are sure to be the conquerors in the end but it will be only after serious losses and expenditure of many lives. Such occurrences show only too clearly how intensely idiotic our present Indian policy is the course we have all along pursued. and the evil effects sure to follow from This treating the Indians as separate nations, with a national individuality, capable of making war and treating for peace has times enough shown its evil results. To be sure that is not the official hypothesis on which negotiations have been carried on with the Indians, but it is practically the case. If the government should make it impossible for the Indians to procure arms, and also punish every hostile Indian the same as anyone else who broke the law, much of this trouble, if not all would be saved; but a continuance of the present line of policy means, a continuance of just such attacks which are now threatening us.