The interests of the Navajo Nation do not end at the reservation border. This chapter discusses three areas where the Navajo Nation must push the physical and legal boundaries of sovereignty in order to protect tribal interests. When it comes to water rights, off-reservation environmental destruction such as uranium mining, and protection of sacred sites, the Navajo Nation has played an active role asserting its interests and lobbying neighboring non-Indian governments. This chapter celebrates such efforts and emphasizes the ways Navajo interests are interconnected with surrounding off reservation communities.

Chapter 4 focuses on the problematic nature of Navajo uranium and coal development following the end of World War II. By not revealing the dangers involved and holding back information on the value of the resources, the U.S. government facilitated particularly destructive forms of development while failing to ensure the tribe received fair compensation. The current reliance of the Navajo Nation on extractive industries for jobs and government revenue can be traced, in part, to the inequities in bargaining position and legal authority over the land that surround the mining agreements approved by the tribe in the early part of the self-determination period.