"The owner of a South Dakota hotel who said Native Americans were banned from the establishment was found liable for discrimination against Native Americans on Friday. A federal jury decided the owner of the Grand Gateway Hotel in Rapid City will pay tens of thousands of dollars in damages to various plaintiffs who were denied service at the hotel. The jury awarded $1 to the NDN Collective, the Indigenous advocacy group that filed the lawsuit."
"Uhre posted on social media in March 2022 that she would ban Native Americans from the property after a fatal shooting at the hotel involving two teenagers whom police identified as Native American. She wrote in a Facebook post that she cannot "allow a Native American to enter our business including Cheers," the hotel's bar and casino. When Native American members of the NDN Collective tried to book a room at the hotel after her social media posts, they were turned away. The incident drew protests in Rapid City and condemnation from the mayor as well as tribes in the state."
A federal jury found the owner of the Grand Gateway Hotel in Rapid City liable for discrimination against Native Americans and ordered tens of thousands of dollars in damages to plaintiffs who were denied service. The jury awarded $1 to the NDN Collective, which filed the class-action civil rights lawsuit against Retsel Corporation in 2022. The case was delayed when Retsel filed for bankruptcy in September 2024, and company head Connie Uhre died in September. Uhre publicly posted in March 2022 that Native Americans would be banned after a fatal shooting; Native Americans attempting to book rooms were turned away, prompting protests and official condemnation. The jury also awarded $812 to Retsel in its nuisance countersuit. A November 2023 consent decree with the U.S. Justice Department required a public apology and barred Uhre from managing the establishment for four years.
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