Scientists were able to trace family lineages from ancient DNA to verify that 73-year-old Ernie LaPointe of South Dakota is Sitting Bull's great-grandson and closest living descendant. The findings, published Wednesday in the
Sitting Bull, born in 1831, was chief and medicine man of the Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux. He united the Sioux tribes across the Great Plains in the late 19th century and led the resistance against settlers who were invading tribal lands. After he was killed by Native American police in 1890, an Army doctor at the Fort Yates military base in North Dakota took a lock of Sitting Bull’s hair and his wool leggings.
"I reached out because I'm an ancient DNA researcher," he said."I told LaPointe, 'If you want to do this, I think I can help you.'"Obtaining enough usable fragments of Sitting Bull's DNA from the small hair sample proved challenging. Willerslev said the hair had badly degraded after being stored at room temperature at the National Museum of Natural History for more than a century.
The researchers compared autosomal DNA from Sitting Bull's hair sample to DNA samples from LaPointe and other Lakota Sioux to establish the familial connection. "To my knowledge, there’s never been any real challenge to Ernie LaPointe and his siblings' direct descent from Sitting Bull," TallBear, who is a member of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate, said."We have detailed genealogies that we keep through oral history and now also tribal genealogical documentation."
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