This paper develops a generalizable account of global-institutional change by linking shifts in the international legal and normative status of indigenous peoples to broader structural, political, and cultural transformations in the world polity since 1500. The framework is rooted in four propositions: (1) world culture is inherently contradictory; (2) actors draw selectively on world culture in ways that advance their particular agendas; (3) the distribution of power in the world system influences which world-cultural principles achieve hegemony; and (4) competing ideas remain latent and re-emerge with changes in the power structure. These propositions explain the historical development of indigenous peoples’ quasi-sovereign status under international law.