This identification was not a claim made in response to scientific testing or in anticipation of legal proceedings — it was knowledge the family had held and transmitted for generations.

The relationship between LaPointe and Sitting Bull, as established through family history and documentary records before any DNA analysis was conducted, is the foundation on which the entire scientific study rests.

This is important to state clearly because the coverage of the DNA study has sometimes implied that the genetic test proved or established the family’s connection to Sitting Bull — as though the connection were uncertain or disputed before the science arrived.

That framing inverts the actual sequence and misrepresents the relationship between family knowledge and scientific confirmation.