South Dakota hotel threatens to ban Native Americans after shooting

• Lodge proprietor makes social media submit banning Native Individuals.
• Capturing between two Native American youngsters.
• Mayor and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Chairman condemn the submit.

RAPID CITY, S.D. — A social media submit from an proprietor of a South Dakota resort trying to ban Native Individuals from the property following a weekend taking pictures drew fast condemnation from the chief of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and the town’s mayor.

Connie Uhre, one of many homeowners of the Grand Gateway Lodge in Speedy Metropolis, stated in a Fb submit Sunday that she can not “enable a Native American to enter our enterprise together with Cheers,” which is the institution’s bar and on line casino.

That adopted a taking pictures on the resort early Saturday involving two youngsters. Speedy Metropolis police spokesman Brendyn Medina stated each the sufferer and the taking pictures suspect are Native American.

Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Chairman Harold Frazier condemned Uhre’s submit, calling it racist and discriminatory, and demanded an apology.

“It’s silly to assault a race of individuals and never the entire points affecting the society through which we reside. This consists of racism,” Frazier stated in an announcement. ”The members of the Nice Sioux Nation who go to our sacred Black Hills are sometimes topic to this sort of habits. These members that select to reside on our treaty territory are sometimes handled as an issue, regardless of how we select to reside.”

Messages left on the resort for Uhre and her son Nick Uhre, a supervisor, weren’t instantly returned.

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Mayor Steve Allender posted a screenshot of Connie Uhre’s remark and stated Monday on Twitter that neither the taking pictures nor the resort’s response displays the town’s values.

“I simply felt that I couldn’t be silent and faux like that is only a innocent venting out of frustration,” he stated. “That is an assault on not solely the 12% of Speedy Citians who’re Native American, but in addition the bigger Native American inhabitants nationwide..”

Allender stated discrimination primarily based upon race is illegal along with being mistaken and heartless.

“This can be a a lot bigger subject that they’ll need to defend to another person, not me,” the mayor informed the Speedy Metropolis Journal.

Speedy Metropolis, identified to many because the gateway to Mount Rushmore, is house to greater than 77,000 individuals. In accordance with the U.S. Census Bureau, not less than 11% of its residents establish as American Indian or Alaska Native.

Uhre’s submit and the tense response it attracted is the newest incident involving fragile race relations in Speedy Metropolis. An indication within the metropolis final Fourth of July vacation known as for higher remedy of Indigenous individuals by police and others.