The purpose of this study was to demonstrate why Native American communities, and in particular the Navajo Nation, were targeted for power plants and other health-harming mineral extraction schemes. I proposed that the Navajo Nation was targeted because of the need for economic development. Environmental racism was also another factor I looked at. My findings concluded that economic development did play a huge role in the instigation of power plants. But other factors such as neocolonialism also contribute to the exploitation of Native American land and resources. Neocolonialism is a factor that heavily influences decisions on development in third world countries. With this new factor, I included other similarities between third world countries and the Navajo Nation regarding development to illustrate the difficult transition to a better standard of living due to the same factors affecting third world countries, which also explains the occurrence of health hazardous industries on the Navajo Nation.
