The National Science Foundation has awarded Dr. Mary Towner, from the Department of Integrative Biology at Oklahoma State University, a $203,000 grant to study the impact of migration, access to resources, and ethnicity on fertility across American Indian women in historical Oklahoma. Between 1828 and 1887, tens of thousands of American Indians were relocated to Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma) under United States Government removal policies. The demographic costs—particularly high mortality rates and drastic reductions in population size— incurred by American Indians during this time are well-known. Still largely unexplored, however, is how women's fertility—defined by demographers as number of live births—varied with social and ecological conditions during this tumultuous period. In collaboration with Dr. Kermyt Anderson (Department of Anthropology, University of Oklahoma), Towner and her students will study fertility variation using data from the 1910 United States Federal Census and records archived by the Office of American Indian Culture and Preservation at the Oklahoma Historical Society. The project will also support OSU graduate student training and provide undergraduates an opportunity to engage in STEM research. You can read more about the study here. Congratulations Mary!