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Settler Colonial Power and the American Indian Sovereignty Movement: Forms of Domination, Strategies of Transformation1 Formats Available in JSTOR:?Full Text,?Article PDF Abstract Bibliographic Information Author Information Notes and References Abstract(back to top) The article extends the multi-institutional model of?power?and change through an analysis of the American Indian Sovereignty Movement. Drawing upon cultural models of the state, and articulating institutionalist conceptions of political opportunities and resources, the analysis demonstrates that this framework can be applied to challenges addressing the state as well as nonstate fields. The rational-legal diminishment of tribal rights, bureaucratic paternalism, commonsense views of tribes as racial/ethnic minorities, and the binary construction of American and Indian as oppositional identities diminished the appeal of “contentious” political action. Instead, to establish tribes’ status as sovereign nations, tribal leaders aggressively enacted infrastructural?power, transposed favorable legal rulings across social fields to legitimize sovereignty discourses, and promoted a pragmatic coexistence with state and local governments. Identifying the United States as a?settler colonial?society, the study suggests that a decolonizing framework is more apt than racial/ethnicity approaches in conceptualizing the struggle of American Indians. Bibliographic Information(back to top) Settler Colonial Power?and the American Indian Sovereignty Movement: Forms of Domination, Strategies of Transformation Erich Steinman American Journal of Sociology Vol. 117, No. 4 (January 2012)?(pp. 1073-1130) Author Information(back to top) Erich Steinman Pitzer College Notes and References(back to top) This item contains?164?reference(s). This item contains?7?note(s). References Adams, Julia. 1999. “Culture in Rational-Choice Theories of State-Formation.” Pp. 98–122 in?STATE/CULTURE: State-Formation after the Cultural Turn, edited by