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This chapter reviews the puzzle of American Indian tribal governments' political successes. Institutional niches in the federal government provide tribes with subtle outside help with cultivating expertise. Expertise then matters because it provides building blocks for future political victories—building blocks that are easily overlooked by scholars. Institutional niches help marginalized groups with developing technical policy expertise, provide opportunities to get to know the external environment, and offer exposure to a variety of strategies and organizational forms. Groups can maintain and improve a niche's support by seeking modest yet serial adjustments in their access to officials, in overall policy frameworks, and in the specific technical procedures of federal agencies. While institutional niches may seem unremarkable in a single snapshot, their effects accumulate into impressive outcomes with wide-ranging consequences. Variegated institutions such as federalism matter because they enable quiet successes.

This chapter examines the ways that American Indian tribal governments confront and change federal Indian policy—specifically, how tribes have discovered and buttressed institutional niches. The chapter explores both short-term and long-term components of tribes’ strategies. Chapter 3 also identifies forces that can alter prospects for utilizing institutional niches. Tribes sought support from institutional niches because those niches allowed them to understand specific problems and solutions; to understand outside interests and to access them; and to access new organizational repertoires. Tribes secured this assistance over time because they gained political insiders’ insights; they won recognition as important collaborators; and they nudged forward regulations that were more favorable, flexible, and simple.

This chapter concludes the analysis and summarizes the argument. The chapter also suggests broader implications and extensions for other scholarship. Tribal governments have managed federal institutional niches, used them to accrue expertise, and nudged those niches towards even more hospitable frameworks. Thus, they have built independent expert organizations that can open up new political opportunities. These findings redirect our attention to lower-profile arenas, with the realization that certain actors have compelling reasons to focus their efforts there. The findings spotlight the influence of variegated institutional environments, not simply as settings of multiple veto opportunities, but also as venues for nuanced positive action. This book makes the case for more actor-centered institutionalism: to think more about agency in agenda-setting. Finally, the chapter engages timely policy debates about federalism, American Indian tribal governments, and Indian gaming.

This chapter focuses on the development of a framework for analyzing the effect of decisions related to strategic interplay management on the institutional complex specialization and division of labor. Institutional niches or governance tasks are the areas that the framework identifies, according to which an institution focuses on solving a particular environmental issue. The chapter presents institutional niches linked with governance tasks such as building knowledge, enforcing compliance, and creating norms. Effective niche selection can be accomplished through regime effectiveness research. Cases related to Arctic environmental governance are presented, which helps in elaborating the niche approach. The chapter concludes with institutional complex interplay management implications.