Sitting Bull's great-grandson identified through DNA fragments
It took scientists 14 years to develop a technique to search
for “autosomal DNA,” which is non-sex-specific DNA that people inherit from
both their mother and father.
A living descendant of the famed Lakota leader Sitting Bull
has been confirmed using a novel technique for analyzing fragments of the
historic figure's DNA.
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 journal Science Advances, will likely help LaPointe in his long-standing
fight to move the Lakota leader's remains from their current burial site in
Mobridge, South Dakota, to a location he said has more cultural relevance to
his great-grandfather.
Eske Willerslev, a professor of ecology and evolution at the
University of Cambridge, said his research normally focuses on piecing together
ancient DNA to understand human genetic diversity and how different groups of
people around the world are similar and distinct. But he couldn't pass up the
opportunity to study Sitting Bull's DNA.
"I've always been extremely fascinated by Sitting Bull
because in many ways he was the perfect leader brave and clever, but also
kind," said Willerslev, who is also director of the Centre of Excellence
in GeoGenetics at the University of Copenhagen.
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.
The hair and and leggings were obtained by the National
Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., in 1896, but both items were
repatriated to LaPointe and his family more than 10 years ago.
A lock of hair taken from Sitting Bull after he was killed
was part of the National Museum of Natural History's collection but was
repatriated to Ernie Lapointe and his family more than a decade ago. Eske
Willerslev
When Willerslev heard more than a decade ago about LaPointe's efforts to claim the Lakota leader's bones for reburial, Willerslev said he felt compelled to assist
"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.'"
Sitting Bull circa 1885.Smithsonian Institute
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.
"There was very little DNA in the hair way too little
for established methods of DNA analysis," he said. "So we had to
develop a new method."
It took the scientists 14 years to develop a technique to
search for "autosomal DNA," which is non-sex-specific DNA that people
inherit from both their mother and father.
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.
Typically, genealogy studies focus on sex-specific genetic
matches, such as zeroing in on the Y chromosome, which is passed down to male
descendants, or specific DNA in the mitochondria that is passed from mothers to
their offspring. But since LaPointe claimed to be related to Sitting Bull on
his mother's side, Willerslev said his team could not rely on these more
traditional methods.
Kim TallBear, an associate professor in the faculty of
Native studies at the University of Alberta, said that while confirming Sitting
Bull's family lineage may help LaPointe win the dispute over his
great-grandfather's final resting place, the study's findings likely don't
represent an "aha" moment for the Lakota and other tribal
communities.
"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."
She added that these types of studies are complicated
because they risk further exploiting Indigenous communities.
"Any time we participate with a scientist in reaffirming genetic definitions of what it means to be Indigenous, we are de facto helping to uphold their definitions over our own," TallBear said. "But we're stuck between a rock and a hard place because settler institutions control the disposition of Sitting Bull's remains."
Willerslev said the new method of DNA analysis could be used
to confirm other familial relationships between living and historic people or
to assist forensic investigations where DNA evidence may be scarce.
It’s also possible to use autosomal DNA for other
high-profile genealogical studies, he added.
“In principle, you could investigate whoever you want from
outlaws like Jesse James to the Russian tsar’s family, the Romanovs,”
Willerslev said in a statement. “If there is access to old DNA typically
extracted from bones, hair or teeth they can be examined in the same way.”
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