The Diné people are at a quandary of energy crossroads.

This fancy word "quandary" is defined by the colonials as dilemma: state of uncertainty or perplexity, especially as requiring a choice between equally unfavorable options directions made by the current "Shirley" administration and council delegates will dictate what happens to your children and your children's children in the next decade.

The overpowering notion to get the money now and deal with the repercussions later seems to be the flag the current Diné governing body is waving.

Where will these people be when unemployment exceeds 75 percent and consumables goes to inflation by an outrageous percentage?

Will the Desert Rock consortium and mining companies provide rebates to help the Diné people that are in need? What sort of culture will exist with an inflated colonial population living on a project area of the reservation?

Will these people respect the land? Will the crime rate accelerate and more young Diné youth are enclosed by drug traffic and usage?

You read and hear the media, what are the headlines? The tribe levying a lawsuit against the EPA? The oversaturated advertisement for young people to work in a progressive mining company? The ever- constant rhetoric of fable mounds of gold and money awaiting at the deliverance of casinos?

The struggles of the people that are trying to keep stability in the environment - Diné Care, opposition groups of Desert Rock?

You have to note that we as Diné, this is home. We are not like the colonial that comes to build the energy structure or mine the coal. They are managers, engineers and tourists that have homes outside the reservation, they will not retire here in an area that may have environmental health repercussions due to massive amount of coal power plants.

What exactly will be the true answers to this quandary? We are not helpless, contrary to other people's opinions. We have the ability to develop green power, and to feed our own people. We know where all the natural resources are on the reservation, to develop it without forsaking the land and people.

Fossil fuel is not the answer. The world can attest to this, look around you, has it been warm winters, has it been drier than you remember? Are the polar ice caps melting?

You see in the media of flooding in New Orleans, eight-foot snow in Chama, N.M., flooding in the Midwest? Ice storms in the Washington state and Oklahoma. Tornadoes during winter in the Midwest. Is this doom and gloom? No! It is reality!

We are a gifted nation. Mother Earth has allowed us to live and raise our children on her back. Treat her with utmost respect. Talk with your families and friends and query each other. Ask, "How can we do the right thing?"

Ken Augustine
Nageezi, N.M.