Native American tribal leaders in South Dakota say a hotel is trespassing on their lands after the hotel’s owner wrote a racist screed banning Native Americans from her establishment.
In a now-deleted Facebook post, Connie Uhre, owner of the Grand Gateway Hotel in Rapid City, wrote that she wouldn’t allow Native Americans to enter the hotel after a shooting took place there, citing vandalism and “Natives killing Natives.”
“[Due] to the killing that took place at the Grand Gateway Hotel on March 19, 2022 at 4 am plus all the vandalism we have had since the Mayor and Police Department are working with the non profit organization (Dark Money). We will no longer allow any Native American on property,” Uhre wrote, adding that she would also ban Native Americans from the sports bar inside the hotel.
It is unclear what “dark money” organization Uhre was referring to, and local reports indicate that the shooting victim was still alive after the shooting.
Steve Allender, the mayor of Rapid City, denounced Uhre’s comments on Twitter.
Local station KNBN reported that the hotel has not actually instituted the policy Uhre shared on Facebook, citing her son, who manages the hotel.
But the NDN Collective, an organization that works to protect the rights of Indigenous people, says it has obtained audio recordings of hotel staff members refusing to rent hotel rooms to the group’s members. The collective is now filing a federal class-action lawsuit against the hotel.
Meanwhile, tribal leaders issued a Notice To Trespass order to the hotel over the weekend, citing the hotel for being in violation of provisions of the “Treaty with the Sioux, April 29, 1868.”
The treaty states that “no white person or persons shall be permitted to settle upon or occupy any portion of the [land north of the North Platte River or east of the summits of the Big Horn Mountains]; or without the consent of the Indians first had and obtained, to pass through the same.”
The Great Sioux Nation is instructing the Grand Gateway Hotel to evacuate immediately.
“You are further notified that the Great Sioux Nation, in order to prevent further trespass upon said land, may … take possession, destroy, or remove said property at your expense,” the order states.
Scott Herman, president of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, along with other tribal members, said they were highly offended by Uhre’s comments and behavior.
“The Great Sioux Nation hereby condemns the blatant racism that is coming from the owner of the Grand Gateway Hotel, and its subsidiaries in Rapid City,” Herman said, according to Dakota News Now.
The Great Sioux Nation said it will take further action to end any racism on treaty lands, including by boycotting Rapid City, urging the city council to end businesses licenses with racist organizations, and by filing hate crime charges against Uhre, Dakota News Now reported.
On Sunday, the hotel said it was “temporarily closed.”