We've been remiss in covering the ongoing protests at Grand Gateway in Rapid City since we posted Tale of Rapid City hoteliers' anti-Indian pledge makes it to New York Times & Noem's staff and Rapid City hotel vowing to ban Native Americans offered cheap rates at 2021 Sheriff Mack event back in March.
On May 27, Connie Uhre, an owner of the Grand Gateway Hotel, was arrested for assaulting three indigenous protesters. At the Rapid City Journal, Siandhara Bonnet reported Friday in Uhre released on MacArthur grant program following arrest:
An owner of the Grand Gateway Hotel who was arrested on three counts of simple assault was released the same day using a program funded by a grant from the MacArthur Foundation, which she has been publicly against.
Rapid City police officers arrested Connie Uhre, 75, May 27 for assaulting three demonstrators outside the Grand Gateway Hotel. In multiple videos from demonstrators at the NDN Collective picket line boycott event, Uhre could be seen getting out of her vehicle and spraying at least three demonstrators with Pledge, a cleaning spray. At least one was sprayed directly in the face.
NDN Collective began boycotting the Uhre businesses following racist remarks from Uhre on social media where she said Native Americans would be banned from the hotel's property.
Helene Duhamel, spokesperson for the Pennington County Sheriff's Office, said Wednesday that Uhre was released using a program funded from the MacArthur Foundation grant. The program uses what's called a Public Safety Assessment.
Duhamel said the assessment is a strategy with the grant to make sure the office is using jail space wisely.
"Just so we're not keeping someone incarcerated that shouldn't be," she said. "(Uhre) was charged with a low-level offense."
Duhamel said the assessment is a strategy with the grant to make sure the office is using jail space wisely.
"Just so we're not keeping someone incarcerated that shouldn't be," she said. "(Uhre) was charged with a low-level offense." . . .
Uhre and her son, Nick, have made public statements against the MacArthur grant.
In a presentation with more than 50 slides sent to Rapid City hotel owners and to South Dakota Citizens for Liberty, Nick blamed the MacArthur grants for what he described as an increase in crime. He also blamed the rising crime rate on police inaction and Native Americans, presenting the idea that a "race war" was on its way.
The assault is documented in the video at VIDEO: GRAND GATEWAY HOTEL OWNER PHYSICALLY ATTACKS NDN COLLECTIVE RACIAL EQUITY DIRECTOR.
Today, during a picket line event – which NDN Collective has been leading three times a week for the last six weeks – Connie Uhre, owner of the Grand Gateway Hotel, approached the boycotters and sprayed Sunny Red Bear, director of racial equity at NDN Collective, directly in the face with a cleaning product.
“This is what we mean when we say that white supremacy is violent,” said Sunny Red Bear, racial equity director at NDN Collective. “No matter how long they lie dormant, peoples’ racist worldviews eventually come out in their actions. Connie Uhre already made her view of Native people clear when she said she’d ban all of us from her business, and when her staff followed through on that ban. Those actions alone were violent. Now that we’ve seen that she was willing to commit a physical act of violence – in public and in broad daylight – I hope that people will begin to understand and believe us when we say how dangerous and REAL racism is.”
“Connie Uhre’s behavior today was not only racist, violent and disgusting – it was also illegal. As Native people we will not sit on the sidelines while our rights are violated,” said Nick Tilsen, NDN Collective President and CEO. “This incident will be added to the federal civil rights lawsuit that was filed in March. We now call upon the Department of Justice to intervene and hold Connie Uhre and the Grand Gateway Hotel accountable for these racist and illegal acts against our people. It requires aggressive action to dismantle white supremacy. Everybody in this community should be outraged.”
Learn more about the NDN Collective by visiting the group's website.
Photo: Screencap from the NDN Collective post, BOYCOTT RAMPS UP WITH LIGHT PROJECTION, SUPPORT FOR NDN COLLECTIVE FROM RAPID CITY BUSINESSES.
Related posts:
- Tale of Rapid City hoteliers' anti-Indian pledge makes it to New York Times & Noem's staff
- Rapid City hotel vowing to ban Native Americans offered cheap rates at 2021 Sheriff Mack event
- NDN Collective receives $50 million for indigenous community trust
- NDN Collective: Decolonizing Thanksgiving
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