American man revealed to be Sitting Bull’s great grandson via DNA test

The best of Voices delivered to your inbox every week - from controversial columns to expert analysis Sign up for our free weekly Voices newsletter for expert opinion and columns Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. The researchers used an innovative technique that compared DNA from a fragment of Sitting Bull’s scalp lock to Mr LaPointe’s genetic data. Hair from Lakota Sioux leader Sitting Bull’s scalp, from which DNA was extracted for analysis “To our knowledge, this is the first published example of a familial relationship between contemporary and a historical individual that has been confirmed using such limited amounts of ancient DNA across such distant relatives,” the researchers said. “I wrote to LaPointe and explained that I specialised in the analysis of ancient DNA, and that I was an admirer of Sitting Bull, and I would consider it a great honour if I could be allowed to compare the DNA of Ernie and his sisters with the DNA of the Native American leader’s hair when it was returned to them,” he added. After cross checking Mr LaPointe’s autosomal DNA with Sitting Bull’s, Dr Willerslev said his team was “delighted to find that it matched.” Researchers said this new technique has paved the way for testing DNA of long-dead historical figures and possible living descendants in cases where there is limited genetic data.