- Details
- By Native News Online Staff
Researchers at the University of Cambridge released findings on Wednesday from decade-long DNA analysis that confirm sun dancer Ernie LaPointe, 73, is Chief Sitting Bull’s great-grandson.
The scientific confirmation gives credence to LaPointe’s lifetime claim he and his sisters are the closest living descendants of Sitting Bull, who is considered one of the greatest American Indian warriors in history because he led more than 1,000 Lakota warriors’ victory over the U.S. troops led by George Armstrong Custer in the Battle of Little Bighorn.
Want more Native News? Get the free daily newsletter today.
"Many people have tried to question the relationship that I and my sisters have to Sitting Bull," LaPointe said in a statement.
Among families--particularly Native American families--family histories are passed down orally from generation to the next. LaPointe heard of his relationship to Sitting Bull as a child from his mother.
The findings were published in the journal Science Advances.
The analysis was done on a piece of Sitting Bull’s hair. Because the hair was stored at room-temperature for over 100 years in the National Museum of Natural History, much of the DNA had diminished, according to the report.
“Another obstacle was Sitting Bull only had daughters. Because of that factor, researchers couldn’t trace the lock’s lineage using mitochondrial DNA, which is passed down from mother to daughter, or Y-chromosome DNA, which follows the male line,” the report states.
“We had to go nuclear,” University of Cambridge paleogeneticist Eske Willerslev said.
It took the researchers over a decade to develop a technique to search for “autosomal DNA,” which is a non-sex-specific DNA that is inherited from both parents.
When the researchers compared DNA from the hair to that of LaPointe and 14 other Lakota individuals, including two of his sisters, they found more of the recovered genes were exact matches for LaPointe’s than for any of the others. “The result fits beautifully with what’s expected of the great-grandchild of the hair,” Willerslev says.
University of Cambridge geneticists crafted a way to extract DNA from a lock of Sitting Bull's hair. Then they compared the resulting genetic data with LaPointe's. It was a match.
Calling this the first time DNA analysis has ever been used to trace bloodlines between living and historical individuals, the researchers say it may open up a new way for those whose families have oral histories saying they are related to a historic figure but no facts to now prove they are related.
The confirmation also may pave the way for LaPointe to rebury the legendary chief from its current location on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation to a place LaPointe says is more appropriate. LaPointe told The New York Times that the area where Sitting Bull is currently buried has not been well maintained and has been desecrated due to people go there to party.
More Stories Like This
Native Bidaské with Erin Fehr on What Eclipses Mean to Various TribesCalifornia Roundtable Dissects Detriments of Public Law 280 to Tribal Public Safety, Sovereignty
Cherokee Veterans in the Nation’s Capital for 10th Cherokee Warrior Flight
Montana Supreme Court Strikes Down Voting Laws Intended to Disenfranchise Native Voters
Women’s History Month: Elizabeth Peratrovich (Tlingit)
Native Perspective. Native Voices. Native News.
We launched Native News Online because the mainstream media often overlooks news that is important is Native people. We believe that everyone in Indian Country deserves equal access to news and commentary pertaining to them, their relatives and their communities. That's why the story you’ve just finished was free — and we want to keep it that way, for all readers. We hope you'll consider making a donation to support our efforts so that we can continue publishing more stories that make a difference to Native people, whether they live on or off the reservation. Your donation will help us keep producing quality journalism and elevating Indigenous voices. Any contribution of any amount — big or small — gives us a better, stronger future and allows us to remain a force for change. Donate to Native News Online today and support independent Indigenous-centered journalism. Thank you.