Scientists have confirmed that Sitting Bulls is the famous 19th-century Native American leader great-grandson. They used a new method to analyse family lines using DNA fragments taken from long-deceased people.
On Wednesday, researchers reported that DNA taken from the hair by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington confirmed the familial relationship between Sitting Bull (who died in 1890) and Ernie LaPointe (73), of Lead, South Dakota.
LaPointe, who is the mother of three sisters, stated that DNA research could be another way to determine my lineal relationship with my great-grandfather. Since I can remember, people have been asking questions about our relationship with our ancestor. These people are a pain in your place - and will doubt these findings, too.
This study was the first to use DNA from a long-dead individual to show a family relationship between a living person and a historical figure. It also offers the possibility of doing so with other people whose DNA can still be extracted from remains like hair, teeth, or bones.
Scientists led by Eske Willerslev (director of the Lundbeck Foundation GeoGenetics Centre, University of Cambridge), developed the new method.
It took 14 years for researchers to find a way to extract usable DNA from hair. The hair was stored at room temperature, but it eventually degraded before it was given to LaPointe and his sisters by the Smithsonian in 2007.
Willerslev stated that he had read about the Smithsonian removing the hair from Sitting Bulls' scalp in a magazine and reached out to LaPointe.
LaPointe asked me for DNA and to compare it with his DNA in order to establish a relationship. Willerslev was senior author of the Science Advances research. It contained very little DNA and I only got very small amounts of hair. We spent a lot of time trying to develop a method that can be compared to the DNA of living people over multiple generations.
This new technique was based on autosomal DNA found in genetic fragments taken from hair. Traditional DNA analysis includes specific DNA in Y chromosomes passed down to the male line and specific DNA within the mitochondria, which are the powerhouses of cells - passed down from mother to child. Instead, autosomal DNA is not gender-specific.
Willerslev stated that there were other methods available, but they required large amounts of DNA or restricted the ability to reach the level of grandparenthood. Our new method allows for deeper family relationships with very little DNA.
Sitting Bull (whose Lakota name is Tatanka-Iyotanka) helped to bring together Sioux tribes from the Great Plains against white colonists taking tribal land and US military forces trying expel Native Americans. At the 1876 Battle of the Little Bighorn, Native American soldiers led by George Custer defeated the federal troops in Montana.
