The aim of this project is to undertake a thorough study of a 1920s American border dispute that was settled by the Supreme Court and which made extensive use of scientific expert witnesses from the environmental sciences. The dispute involved the states of Oklahoma and Texas, oil speculators, Native Americans, the two most prominent plant ecologists in the U.S., Henry Chandler Cowles and Frederic Clements, geographer Isaiah Bowman, and leading geologists and topographical engineers. The goal of the project is to write two or three articles, with the ultimate aim of producing book on the dispute which focuses on expert testimony and examines this episode within the context of science and law, debates over use of public lands, resource management, Native American rights, and national petroleum policy. To carry out this project, the PI will visit archives in Washington, Baltimore, New York, Austin, Fort Worth, Oklahoma City, and Laramie, and will conduct a thorough review of published sources. Intellectual merit. The Red River case presents a unique opportunity for a thorough historical study of a complex legal dispute that made liberal use of scientific experts in many fields in an effort to reconstruct the topographical history of a small section of a river a century before. Abundant source material provides an unusual opportunity for a detailed study that will examine the scientific issues in depth, place them within the context of contemporary knowledge in the respective fields, and analyze the relationship between lawyers and scientists, different standards of evidence in science and the legal profession, and criteria for admissibility of expert evidence in the courts. Law and science has been receiving considerable attention for many years, but little scholarship in this area has been done by historians of science. The scientific disagreements expressed in expert testimony were played out against a background of debates over the proper use of public land, the conservation of natural resources, and the role of the federal government in monitoring and regulating land and mineral resources, including use of scientific experts to shape policy. This study will show that these background issues colored the testimony itself. Broader impacts. Although this may seem like one of many legal disputes over valuable mineral land, the Red River boundary dispute, explored fully, will provide a kind of snapshot into a range of issues that were critical to this nation in the early 20th century and remain critical today: the proper use of land and resources, the relationship between science and government, science and law, the treatment of Native Americans, the limits of individual freedom as regarding use of land and its resources, the limits of government in restricting individual freedom on these matters. This episode spanned a critical period between the Progressive era and the New Deal, that was influential in shaping future foreign and domestic policy. As speculators rushed to extract oil from the Red River and other sites in the Southwest, experts warned of impending oil shortages and the need to turn to foreign sources. Others spoke of the moral imperative of conservation. The projected book will shed light on all of these issues while offering a detailed case study that should appeal to students and teachers in history of science, environmental history, social history, Southwestern history, and science and technology studies. It will be of interest to anyone concerned with the role of scientific experts in our society, Native American rights, land tenure, and the development of U.S. energy policy.
