Based on minority nationality areas in the west, this paper uses the path dependence theory to analyze the trans- formation process from cultural force to economic force, reveals that the path dependence of mandatory institutional change exists in the transformation from cultural force to economic force in the area and that this mandatory institutional change has the institutional performance of gradual increase of benefit in the short term and will develop in the direction of non--performance in long--term angle and, in the end, will be closed in the status of non--efficiency. Thus, the focus of institutional innovation should be put on educational investment, cultural network construction and traditional cultural resources protection.