Living descendant of Sitting Bull confirmed by analysis of DNA from the legendary leader's hair

[Still Waters]

A man's claim to be the great-grandson of legendary Native American leader Sitting Bull has been confirmed using DNA extracted from Sitting Bull's scalp lock. This is the first time ancient DNA has been used to confirm a familial relationship between living and historical individuals.

The confirmation was made possible using a new method to analyze family lineages using ancient DNA fragments, developed by a team of scientists led by Professor Eske Willerslev of the University of Cambridge and Lundbeck Foundation GeoGenetics Center. The results are published today in the journal Science Advances.

Autosomal DNA from Lakota Sioux leader Sitting Bull's scalp lock was compared to DNA samples from Ernie Lapointe and other Lakota Sioux. The resulting match confirms that Lapointe is Sitting Bull's great-grandson, and his closest living descendant.

https://phys.org/news/2021-10-descendant-bull-analysis-dna-legendary.html

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abh2013

[acute]

They can't accuse him of bullsitting anymore!