Man learns he’s officially the great-grandson of Sitting Bull while visiting Colorado Springs
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- Ernie LaPointe always knew he was the descendant of prominent tribal leader Sitting Bull, but he got the call that DNA officially links him to the icon while he was vacationing in Colorado Springs this week.
LaPointe spent his entire life believing through oral history, spiritual ceremonies, and documentation that he was the great-grandson of Sitting Bull, but this new DNA evidence is the fourth confirmation that they are directly related.
The number four is sacred in the Lakota tribal culture, so having a fourth confirmation is especially meaningful to LaPointe.
A Danish scientist used a lock of Sitting Bull's hair to test for DNA back in 2007. The lock of hair was in the Smithsonian for years before being returned to Sitting Bull's family. It took 14 years for official confirmation that LaPointe was a direct descendant, but the news came this week while LaPointe was visiting his friends at One Nation Walk Together, a Colorado Springs non-profit.
"It was just a huge blessing that they were here at this time, and we could be a part of the exciting news that finally the DNA has proven what he's already always known," said One Nation Walking Together's Executive Director Kathy Turzi.
This scientific confirmation of their relationship also strengthens his fight to move his great-grandfather's remains to a place he believes to be more honorable than his current burial site.
"He was never given the honorable burial, a funeral, sorry to say it was because he was just stuck in canvas bag and put in a box and buried in a cemetery," LaPointe said. "In Lakota culture, you know, you had to respect and honor your ancestors' remains, and usually put them up on the scaffold for four days. So, they [could take] a spiritual journey back to the spirit world. They never did that."
Sitting Bull was shot and killed by Indian Police on the Standing Rock reservation in the late 1800s, and while most records point to him being buried there on that reservation, some people dispute that his actual remains are still there.
LaPointe said this DNA evidence can allow them to test the remains and lobby to move them to a new burial site. It will hopefully also allow them to perform the ceremonies they believe he should have had after he died.
