Environmentalist settler colonialism? J. M. Bacon, Kirsten Vinyeta, Graham Ward, Ella Widmann, ‘Mapping the web of solidarity: a social network analysis of shifting Tribal engagement among the Big 10 environmental organizations in the United States’, Environmental Sociology, 2025 | settler colonial studies blog

Environmentalist settler colonialism? J. M. Bacon, Kirsten Vinyeta, Graham Ward, Ella Widmann, ‘Mapping the web of solidarity: a social network analysis of shifting Tribal engagement among the Big 10 environmental organizations in the United States’, Environmental Sociology, 2025

21Jul25

Abstract: In the last decade, Big 10 environmental movement organization (EMO) rhetoric in the U.S. has noticeably shifted to include topics pertaining to social justice. For Indigenous studies scholars, Indigenous peoples, and Tribal governments and organizations, this raises questions about how Big 10 organizations grapple with Tribal sovereignty and with ongoing legacies of settler colonialism. As organizations largely led by non-Natives, EMO failures to acknowledge Tribal sovereignty reflect settler colonial legacies of Indigenous erasure. Nevertheless, EMOs have made progress toward improving relationships with Tribes in recent years. Our research employs social network analysis and qualitative methods to explore the collaborations the ‘Big 10’ have built since 2010. Our findings affirm the importance of two large-scale, land-based conflicts – the Dakota Access Pipeline and the Bears Ears National Monument – as catalysts for strengthened ties between EMOs and Tribes. As EMOs interacted closely with Tribal partners, their rhetorical frames shifted from environmental and cultural frames to political frames centering Tribal treaty rights and sovereignty. We also found EMO involvement in direct action supporting Indigenous peoples fluctuated throughout the dataset depending on the presence or absence of high-profile environmental conflicts affecting Indigenous peoples.

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