A hotel banned Native Americans. The Sioux served a trespassing order. [View all]

On March 20, one day after a young Native American man was shot at a Rapid City, S.D., hotel, the owner posted on Facebook that she was implementing a new guest policy.

“We will no long[er] allow any Native American on property,” wrote Connie Uhre, owner of the Grand Gateway Hotel, according to a screenshot of the post.

The social media post set off a firestorm in Rapid City, South Dakota’s second most populated city, where about 10 percent of residents are of Native descent. A nonprofit group that defends the rights of Native Americans has filed a federal class-action lawsuit against the hotel and Uhre, alleging racial discrimination, and Sioux tribal leaders have served the hotel with a trespassing order, saying the Grand Gateway is on Native land, in violation of an 1868 treaty.

“Some of our people were shocked and upset after seeing that” social media post, Harold Frazier, chairman of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, told The Washington Post. “Some of our people were like, ‘We always go through this,’ but to really see it in writing, it caused a lot of anger.”


https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/03/30/south-dakota-hotel-native-americans/