It is the demonstration of a research approach that centered Indigenous community interests from the beginning and produced results that served those interests — a demonstration that can inform how other researchers approach similar questions in other contexts.

The Meaning the Family Made

In November 2021, the peer-reviewed study of Sitting Bull’s DNA was published in the journal Science Advances.

The publication was covered by science journalists and by general news outlets as a significant finding, and the coverage brought attention to the broader story of the repatriation, the family’s identity, and the DNA method.

Ernie LaPointe has spoken in interviews about what the study meant to him and his family.

His accounts emphasize several things: the confirmation of what the family had always known, the potential relevance of the documentation in ongoing disputes about Sitting Bull’s burial and legacy, and the importance of the broader question of how Sitting Bull is remembered and by whom.