A South Dakota hotel owner said she was banning all Native Americans after a shooting in one of the rooms — sparking such outrage that her entire bar staff quit in protest, according to reports.
“We will no longer allow any Native American[s] on [the] property,” Grand Gateway Hotel owner Connie Uhre wrote on Facebook, according to screenshots shared by outraged Rapid City Mayor Steve Allender.
“Natives killing Natives,” she wrote, although the victim of the shooting at her hotel Saturday remained alive, albeit with life-threatening injuries, according to police.
Uhre also told staffers in an email that she “really does not want to allow Natives on the property,” South Dakota Public Broadcasting reported.
“The problem is we do not know the nice ones from the bad Natives … so we just have to say no to them!!” she wrote, according to the widely shared thread that SDPB said it had verified.
Her views were immediately condemned by hotel executives on the thread, the broadcaster noted, including one executive who told her, “Your racist rant is unwelcome.”
“These views are abhorrent and have no place in our community let alone our industry,” one hotel manager wrote, while another asked to be taken off “this disgusting email chain.”
Staff at the hotel’s popular Cheers Sports Bar went even further — and all quit in protest, also joined by other hotel workers, SDPB said.
“I just don’t want to be associated with that,” said one of them, Red Elk Zephier, who is Yankton Sioux and Oneida. “I didn’t even think about the money or anything involved, I just, I can’t have that in my life.”
The bar’s regular DJ, Paul “DJ Pauly G” Geissler, also said he “will never step foot in there again.”
The Rapid City government, Oglala Sioux Tribe, local law enforcement, and business organizations also sent an open letter condemning the proposed ban and asking the hotel owners to publicly apologize.
“These hateful, racially-based statements return us to the volatile comments of the 1950s and 1960s,” said the letter shared by SDPB.
Uhre’s son, who manages the hotel, confirmed to the public broadcaster that they were not taking new bookings because of a flood of threats over his mother’s comments, which he blamed on a knee-jerk reaction to her “frustration and sorrow” at the shootings.
He insisted, “Natives are welcome at the Grand Gateway Hotel, always have been, always will.”
Lara Roetzel, the chief deputy prosecuting attorney for the Pennington County State’s Attorney’s Office, told the outlet that Uhre’s comments were protected under the First Amendment and she would only face legal action if the hotel actually implemented the ban.
Police said Quincy Bear Robe, 19, was arrested for the shooting and was charged with aggravated assault and commission of a felony with a firearm. Additional charges may be pending, police said.
