The Great Sioux Nation in South Dakota is demanding a hotel owner surrender her property under the terms of a 1868 treaty because the owner refuses to serve Native Americans, Native News Online reports.

Seventy-six year old Connie Uhre, owner of the Grand Gateway Hotel in Rapid City, posted to Facebook on March 22nd that her business would not serve Native Americans.  “Do [sic] 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 Native Americans on property, including Cheers.”

Tribal leaders issued a “Notice of Trespass (Cease and Desist)” order to Uhre, her family/co-owners and the hotel, calling for them to vacate the property.  They cite the Sioux Treaty of 1868, which states, “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.”

Last Wednesday, an attorney for the NDN Collective, an indigenous peoples’ rights organization, filed a lawsuit against the hotel after members were denied hotel rooms at the Grand Gateway for two consecutive nights.  Following the filing, the hotel has been the site of demonstrations daily, prompting Connie Uhre’s son, who is a co-owner of the property, to appeal to the governor for additional protection.