Sitting Bull's Closest Living Relative Is Found

Ernie LaPointe's longstanding claim of lineage has been confirmed
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 28, 2021 2:32 AM CDT
After 14 Years, Researchers Connect Sitting Bull to SD Man
A portrait of Chief Sitting Bull.   (Photos.com / Getty Images)

The great-grandson of the iconic Native American chief Sitting Bull is 73 years old and living in South Dakota. DNA analysis has confirmed that the chief, whose Lakota name was Tatanka-Iyotanka, is the great-grandfather of Ernie LaPointe, the Guardian reports. LaPointe had long claimed he and his sisters are Sitting Bull's descendants, producing historical records, a family tree, and birth and death records, the Wall Street Journal reports. Now, his lineage has been scientifically confirmed; LaPointe is officially Sitting Bull's closest living relative, ScienceDaily reports.

The 19th-century chief's hair sample was stored for more than a century, at room temperature, at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, DC, until it was given to LaPointe and his three sisters in 2007. Scientist Eske Willerslev heard about the transfer and contacted LaPointe, offering to extract DNA from the sample in order to confirm the lineage. But the sample was so degraded due to how it had been stored that it took 14 years for a team of researchers led by Willerslev to extract usable DNA from it, which was then compared to LaPointe's DNA.

Another challenge: Since the chief is LaPointe's great-grandfather on his maternal side, traditional DNA analysis could not be used, since it depends on DNA "in the Y chromosome passed down the male line, or, if the long-dead person was female, specific DNA in the mitochondria passed from a mother to her offspring," according to the University of Cambridge, where the research was performed. So the method researchers developed uses autosomal DNA, which is not gender specific.

story continues below

Next for LaPointe is to get his great-grandfather's bones re-buried, as Sitting Bull's final resting place is currently a South Dakota location the Journal refers to as "arbitrary." Next up for the research team is, maybe, to use this method to confirm other relationships between living people and historical figures. "With our new method, it is possible to establish deeper-time family relationships using tiny amounts of DNA," Willerslev says. "In principle, you could investigate whoever you want—from outlaws like Jesse James to the Russian tsar's family, the Romanovs." (More Sitting Bull stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X