Photo of Sitting Bull, a legendary Native American leader taken in 1885. Image credit: National Portrait Gallery Smithsonian Institution
Science has proven that a man from South Dakota is the greatgrandson of Sitting Bull, the legendary Native American leader. The DNA of the famous chieftain's hair matches that of Ernie LaPointe who has long claimed this connection.
Sitting Bill (also known as Tatanka Iyotanka) led the Lakota tribe, a Sioux group, in what is now South Dakota. Most notable is his role as the military leader that defeated U.S. Lieutenant Colonel George Custer in the Battle of Little Bighorn 1876. Sitting Bull fled the country, and later returned to Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show. According to PBS, Sitting Bull was killed by Indian police in 1890 while they tried to arrest him.
This new discovery reveals that Sitting Bull is related to LaPointe, a Lakota Sioux male. According to the statement, it is the first time ancient DNA has been used in order to confirm a family relationship between historical and living individuals.
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"We were able to find sufficient autosomal DNA in Sitting Bull’s hair sample and compare it with the DNA from Ernie LaPointe, other Lakota Sioux," Eske Willerslev (an evolutionary geneticist at Cambridge University in England) stated in a statement. "And we were thrilled to discover that it matched."
(Autosomal DNA is the genetic material found on 22 pairs of nonsex chromosomes.
Ancestry not proven
LaPointe relied on his birth and death certificates until now to build a family tree linking him to Sitting Bull. The claim to Sitting Bull has been repeatedly challenged because those certificates are easily falsified.
LaPointe stated in the statement that "over the years, many people tried to question the relation that I and my siblings have to Sitting Bull." The Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C., gave Sitting Bull his scalp lock back to LaPointe in 2007. This provided an opportunity to end the dispute once and for all.
Photo of Ernie LaPointe, confirmed as Sitting Bull's nearest living relative. (Image credit: Ernie LaPointe)
According to the statement, Willerslev almost choked on his coffee when he heard that the museum was going to release a sample from Sitting Bull's hair. He knew this was an opportunity to study the legendary leader's DNA.
In the statement, Willerslev stated that he wrote to LaPointe explaining that he specialized in ancient DNA analysis and that he was an admirer Sitting Bull. He also said that he would consider it a great honor if ernie's DNA could be compared with that of the Native American leader's hair.
LaPointe granted permission for the researchers to analyze a small portion of the hair. The rest was burnt in a spiritual ceremony. According to the statement, it was difficult to extract DNA from the hair sample as the museum had not properly preserved the hair.
DNA analysis
Willerslev and his colleagues spent 14 years trying extract DNA from the hair and match it with LaPointe. This was partly because the researchers needed autosomal DNA in order to verify LaPointe's claims.
To answer questions about ancestry, DNA analysis has relied in the past on sex-specific DNA samples. The DNA from the Y-chromosome can be used to trace ancestry back through the male line (fathers to their sons), for example. According to the statement, DNA from mitochondria, an energy-producing organelle in our cells, can only be passed on to offspring by females.
LaPointe claimed that he was related to Sitting Bull through his mother's side. Researchers needed autosomal DNA to trace LaPointe's genetic lineage. This is a mixture of both his parents' DNA. This type of DNA can be difficult to extract from old DNA samples, especially if the condition is poor. Researchers devised a new method to address the problem.
Sitting Bull's hair lock, which was used to collect the hair sample for analysis. (Image credit: Eske Willerslev)
This involves comparing the DNA that can be extracted from the sample to that of another individual. This allows researchers to determine the frequency of different variants of the same gene in a population. Then, they use computer models to calculate the likelihood that two individuals share the same alleles or if they cannot share them if they are related.
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According to the statement, the new technique could also be used to solve historical mysteries. Willerslev stated that you could in principle investigate anyone you like, including outlaws such as Jesse James and the Russian Tsar's [the Romanovs] family." You can examine them in the same manner if you have access to older DNA. This is typically taken from bones, hair, or teeth.
A proper burial
Sitting Bull is buried in two graves. One in Fort Yates (North Dakota), and one in Morbridge (South Dakota). Because no one knows the fate of his body after his death, it is impossible to determine which grave is his true resting place. Both sites are popular tourist attractions. However, neither Sitting Bull nor the Lakota Sioux were interested in these places.
LaPointe believes the Morbridge grave is Sitting Bull's most likely burial place. Now that he has been confirmed to be a direct descendent of Sitting Bull, he hopes to be in a position to retrieve his great-grandfather’s body and have it buried somewhere else. To confirm the identity of the body at Morbridge, scientists must first compare its DNA with the scalp lock DNA.
Researchers are pleased to have helped confirm LaPointe's relationship to Sitting Bull. They hope that the chieftain will eventually return his body to his family for proper burial.
Willerslev stated in the statement that Sitting Bull was his hero since he was a young boy. I admire his courage, and his drive.
The study was published online in Science Advances on October 27, 2007.
Original publication on Live Science
