I can see why the organizers of the OKC Freedom Rally chose the hold their event at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Norman!
Earlier this week, the Kiowa Tribe Language Department held a retreat at the hotel, which sounds as non-political as you can get. However, as a Kiowa Tribe employee—who is also an Elder, mind you—tried to check-out using a Tax Identification Exemption Card, after the Accounts Manager on Duty told him his card was invalid, he then told the Elder to “go back to your reservation and use it there because our hotel is not in Indian Country.”
A Kiowa ELDER was disrespected in Norman, OK by an @EmbassySuites employee, saying “You can go back to your reservation and use it there because our hotel is not in Indian Country.”
— Oscar Hokeah (@OscarHokeah) June 24, 2021
See the official letter released by the Kiowa Tribe below. 👇🏽 pic.twitter.com/R3G2CUTr1N
I guess the true spirit of the Freedom Rally must’ve gotten to the MOD!
These types of discriminations against Indigenous people are quite prevalent not only in Norman, but throughout much of Oklahoma. While I can understand an issue with the Tax Identification Cards, that doesn't give hotel staff the right to be disrespectful to the Elder and, honestly, the Kiowa people and the Indigenous in general.
I’m sure most people with a working soul would think so too.