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Tensions, Engagements, and Activisms along the Pipeline Route: Tracing Resistance to Line 93 in Northern Minnesota

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Ryan Rybka at University of Massachusetts Amherst
Ryan Rybka
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Abstract and Figures

Enbridge crude oil pipelines have been operational on Anishinaabe treaty lands in northern Minnesota, for over 70 years, carrying crude oil from the Alberta tar sands to refineries in Wisconsin. It was not until the replacement of Line 3 with the Line 93 pipeline in 2015 that large-scale social unrest was sparked. Indigenous and non-Indigenous Water Protectors joined together in civil disobedience to halt the construction of Line 93 due to its violations of Indigenous sovereignty and its potential for environmental impacts. On October 1, 2021, the replacement construction was finished; Line 3 was deactivated; the replacement Line 93 began transporting oil; and the resistance mostly subsided. In this paper, I explore the role of archaeology within this conflict as both a methodology for engaging with the materiality of oil infrastructure and as a stakeholder and ally of decolonial social movements through collected archaeological and ethnographic data along the pipeline route.
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Vol.:(0123456789)
International Journal of Historical Archaeology
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10761-025-00779-5
Tensions, Engagements, andActivisms alongthePipeline
Route: Tracing Resistance toLine 93 inNorthern Minnesota
RyanRybka1
Accepted: 4 January 2025
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature
2025
Abstract
Enbridge crude oil pipelines have been operational on Anishinaabe treaty lands in
northern Minnesota, for over 70 years, carrying crude oil from the Alberta tar sands
to refineries in Wisconsin. It was not until the replacement of Line 3 with the Line
93 pipeline in 2015 that large-scale social unrest was sparked. Indigenous and non-
Indigenous Water Protectors joined together in civil disobedience to halt the con-
struction of Line 93 due to its violations of Indigenous sovereignty and its potential
for environmental impacts. On October 1, 2021, the replacement construction was
finished; Line 3 was deactivated; the replacement Line 93 began transporting oil;
and the resistance mostly subsided. In this paper, I explore the role of archaeology
within this conflict as both a methodology for engaging with the materiality of oil
infrastructure and as a stakeholder and ally of decolonial social movements through
collected archaeological and ethnographic data along the pipeline route.
Keywords Contemporary Archaeology· Anthropocene· Activism· Midwest· Oil
Pipeline
Introduction
Anishinaabe activist, Winona LaDuke (2020:81) describes the present moment as
a time foretold by Lakota prophecy in which a “great black snake would come to
the land, bringing sickness and destruction.” This black snake is the Dakota Access
Pipeline (DAPL) currently transporting oil from North Dakota to Illinois and came
to national attention in 2016 when the Standing Rock Sioux Nation challenged its
clear treaty and environmental violations (Estes 2019) through nonviolent resist-
ance. While the legality of DAPL continues to be fought in court, DAPL was
* Ryan Rybka
rrybka@umass.edu
1 Anthropology Department, University ofMassachusetts Amherst, Machmer Hall, 240 Hicks
Way, Amherst, MA01003, USA
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