In an open letter to Barack Obama, Leonard Peltier writes: "I have watched with keen interest and renewed hope as your campaign has mobilized millions of Americans behind your message of changing a political system that serves a small economic elite at the expense of the peoples of the United States and the world. Your election as president of the United States, where slaves and Indians were long considered less than human under the law, will undoubtedly constitute a historic moment in race relations in the United States. Yet symbolism alone will not bring about change..."

Earlier this week, in his statement to the protesters outside the DNC, Peltier wrote "I deeply regret all the wonderful things in life that I have missed, but I will never regret standing up for my people for as long as I can draw my breath. My heart is with them always, and my heart is with you today."

Peltier (who many consider to be a political prisoner of the COINTELPRO era) is currently being held at the federal prison in Lewisburg, PA. For more information, read Leonard Peltier: Silence Screams by Carolina Saldaña, and visit his new website. The embedded video is "Incident at Oglala" (view parts 1 and 2).

I truly believe the truth will set me free, but it will also signify a symbolic break from America’s undeclared war on indigenous peoples. I hope and pray that you possess the courage and integrity to seek out the truth and the wisdom to recognize the inherent right of all peoples to self-determination, as acknowledged by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.