Are dolphins people?

This is an issue that I have been thinking about a lot recently, and something that I believe will have a missive impact on us all in the end.

Personally, I do believe that dolphins are people like us. They count as intelligent life. They may not have cities and technology, but that doesn't matter. They have culture, language  and deep emotions- traits of intelligent beings.
I believe that a person is self aware, and this has come from various articles, papers and quotes telling us that a person is a being with consciousness. And dolphins regard themselves as individuals, so they must count.

There is much evidence to back up al of this. Dolphins can recognise them selves in the mirror, a very rare quality, shared only by humans, elephants, great apes and cetaceans. They are very noisy when in groups, and this cannot be just random noise. The amount of sound that they produce must have a purpose. Being social beings means that this sound may not only be on hunting and mating, but also the latest gossip and information. Perhaps these people have stories and songs passed down through the generations, much like knowledge is. After all, we pass down stories and songs, why shouldn't they?
Dolphins and whales live long lives, and this is amazing given that they have hardly any medical care or housing. Orcas can live well into their 80s, and a bowhead whale was found in the Arctic with a type of whaling spear stuck in it's head that had not been used in over a century, making this a truly ancient whale. Research has even suggested that these whales can live for over 200 years. It may just be me, but a creature that lives this long, and is that social, must have much wisdom. So teaching must be a vital part of their society, as it is in ours.

Our two species have may cultural similarities, such as teaching and socialising. So it stands to reason that these animals are in fact people, and one day may be able to communicate with them. In fact we have tried, and are trying. Hopefully the outcome will be successful, and end up with a partnership of species. But have we thought that they might be trying to communicate with us? I believe that they have.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3X8nIXTtgBk
Here is a link to a youtube video that shows Luna, a lone young orca making sounds like those of a boat's motor. Perhaps he thought that the motor was one of us? Perhaps he was just playing. We cannot know, but this video is strong evidence of communication.
More evidence of this communications is of captive dolphins. In a tank they fall largely silent, but many videos show dolphins squeaking or clicking at humans, even when they are the only ones in a tank. So are they talking to themselves? Or are they talking to us? Or are they talking to us as we might to a dog or cat? Or are they simply making mindless noises?
Until their language is opened up to us, we can't know.
To tell what they are saying would be amazing. We could share knowledge with them, as they could with us. Would they notice the slowly dying oceans? Would they cry at the loss of a loved one? What would they say about captivity?
All these questions may be answered in the next decade, and it would be amazing to be able to communicate with these amazing beings.

So are they people? Do they count? Make your own mind up, but I am sure that we will come to a conclusion on this in the next few years.
How hard would it be to keep a dolphin in a tank if it told you how much it hated it? How hard would it be to kill whales if we knew that we were killing our equals? And just how will more people on this planet affect us all in the end?