“WORKING FOR THE RIGHTS AND RECOGNITION
OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES"
Leonard Peltier #89637-132 USP - Leavenworth PO Box 1000 Leavenworth, KS 66048-1000 November 30, 2004
Sisters, Brothers, Friends and Supporters,
Indigenous Peoples of the United States are no strangers to hardship and abuse at the hands of the oppressor. We also are no strangers to treaty negotiation and betrayal. Between 1778, when the first treaty was signed with the Delawares, and 1868, when the final one was completed with the Nez Perces, there were hundreds of treaties between the U.S. government and the Indian Nations. Not one of these treaties was honored by the government.
The United Nations itself says that human rights must be applied to all Peoples without discrimination. Accordingly, the United Nations Draft Declaration for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was adopted by the U.N. Subcommission for the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities in 1994. The text of the Declaration has been endorsed and supported by hundreds of Indigenous Peoples and organizations around the world as the *minimum* standard required for the recognition and protection of Indigenous Peoples' rights internationally.
However, there have been continued attempts by some states to undermine efforts to protect the human rights of the Indigenous Peoples. We cannot allow our rights to be negotiated, compromised or diminished by the oppressor or by the U.N. process, which was initiated more than 20 years ago.
Yesterday, the Indigenous Peoples' delegates declared a hunger strike and spiritual fast inside the United Nations Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, to call the world's attention to these attempts to weaken the Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
This week, I urge you to send expressions of solidarity to our brave sisters and brothers and letters of support for the adoption of the current text of the U.N. Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
