Rapid City's Grand Gateway Hotel issues court-ordered apology for racist comments in long-running controversy

[TexasTowelie]

The Grand Gateway Hotel in Rapid City, enmeshed in a racially tinged controversy for nearly two years, has issued an apology as part of consent agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice.

Former co-owner Connie Uhre has been prohibited from serving as an officer or director of the Retsel Corporation, which owns the hotel and the Cheers Sports Lounge. An apology letter was sent to South Dakota tribal organizations and area media:

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The legal trouble also got personal for Connie Uhre.

Immediately after her email and social media post were made public, NDN Collective, a Rapid City-based Indigenous rights organization, organized a protest march on March 23, 2022, and set up pickets outside the hotel for several weeks. On May 27, 2022, Uhre was arrested and charged with three counts of simple assault after she sprayed Pledge cleaning solution on three picketers.

On Oct. 13, 2023, Uhre, 76, was found guilty on two of the counts by a Pennington County jury. Uhre, who claimed earlier this year she could not get a fair trial in Rapid City, faces up to one year in jail and a $2,000 fine for each count.

Read more: https://www.sdstandardnow.com/home/grand-gateway-hotel-issues-court-ordered-apology-for-racist-comments-at-heart-of-long-running-controversy-at-rc-business

[TexasTowelie]

1. The response to the apology:

Wednesday, Dec. 13, NDN Collective received a court-ordered apology letter from the Grand Gateway Hotel. In response, the organization released the following statement:

“While we are glad the court saw Connie Uhre’s statements about refusing to serve Native people as unacceptable, the fact that they had to issue an order for this letter is very telling. We find this so-called apology – which attempts to center Grand Gateway Hotel as an inclusive business – to be insulting and disingenuous.

“The letter contains an apology for ‘statements made by Connie Uhre,’ yet fails to mention that those statements were actually enforced when multiple Native people were denied a room. It fails to acknowledge the dangerous, dehumanizing, and very public physical assault Connie inflicted on community members.

“The letter tries to reposition the owners as friends to Native people, despite the fact that another lawsuit was filed against the Grand Gateway Hotel just a couple months ago for racial discrimination against a Native person visiting from out of town.

Read more: https://www.sdstandardnow.com/home/native-american-activist-organization-ndn-collective-responds-to-grand-gateway-hotels-court-ordered-apology