The specific technique applied to the Sitting Bull hair sample focused on recovering autosomal DNA — DNA from the non-sex chromosomes, which carries information about direct biological relationships including parent-child relationships and more distant ancestry.

Autosomal DNA analysis can determine whether two individuals share enough genetic material to be consistent with a specific family relationship — grandparent and grandchild, great-grandparent and great-grandchild — by comparing the proportion and pattern of shared genetic segments.

The analysis compared the genetic material recovered from Sitting Bull’s hair with genetic material provided by Ernie LaPointe.

The comparison found a level and pattern of shared autosomal DNA consistent with the relationship that family history had identified — that of great-grandfather and great-grandson, in the lineage that LaPointe had described.

The researchers were appropriately careful in how they characterized this finding.