(written years later) could have been colored by the events of a few days later: From the Little Dog, a prominent chief of the Piegan tribe [of Blackfeet], and a man of character and probity, I got a very particular description of the Marias Pass we were in search of. From some superstition of the Blackfeet, it has not been used for many years, but formerly it was almost the only thoroughfare made use of by the Indians in passing from one side of the mountains to the other. It is a broad, wide open valley, with scarcely a hill or obstruction on the road, excepting here and there some fallen timber. Undoubtedly feeling pressured by his duty to organize the newly-formed Washington Territory, Governor Stevens pressed on across the Rockies without locating Marias Pass. After crossing the Continental Divide at Cadotte Pass (elevation ), Stevens sent the civilian engineer Abiel Tinkham back to look for the pass. But approaching from the steeper western side of the divide, Tinkham missed Marias Pass, and instead crossed at today’s Cut Bank Pass (elevation ), roughly northwest of Marias Pass. Upon hearing Tinkham’s report, and realizing Tinkham’s error, the determined Isaac Stevens made one final attempt to locate the elusive pass, requesting survey party member James Doty, left behind at Fort Benton, attempt to find it from the east. Stevens dutifully reported Doty’s not-quite-successful results in the Survey report: Turning back on the 8th of June [1854], Mr. Doty retraced his route as far as the Marias, already referred to as issuing from a gap 15 miles wide, and along which was an old Indian trail, and followed it up on the trail for thirty miles to the southwest, finding no obstruction, except from trees; and at that distance, ascending a lofty hill, saw no mountains in the direction of the stream. On each side the mountains were lofty and rugged, showing, generally, perpendicular rock from within 300 feet of their summits, which were covered with snow; and snow banks were also found on the north side of many hills. It is to be regretted that Mr. Doty did not continue on, and ascertain where the trail issued on the western side of the mountains. This is the true Marias Pass, described to me by the Little Dog at Fort Benton in September, 1853, and formerly used by the Indians in crossing the