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Real Red River Rivalry - Texas v Oklahoma

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As an important geographic feature of this region, the Red River has lent its name to a valley, a Civil War campaign, and a famed college football rivalry between the Longhorns of Texas and the Sooners of Oklahoma. But college pride has not been the only source of controversy between Texas and Oklahoma regarding the Red River. The River has been the cause of numerous historical conflicts between the two States, leading to a mobilization of their militias at one time, Oklahoma v. Texas, 258 U. S. 574, 580 (1922), and the declaration of martial law along a stretch of the River by Oklahoma Governor "Alfalfa Bill"Murray at another, see Okla. H. Res. 1121, 50th Legislature, 2d Sess. (2006) (resolution commemorating "AlfalfaBill" Murray’s actions during the "Red River Bridge War"). Such disputes over the River and its waters are a natural result of the River’s distribution of water flows.