Ernie LaPointe, a 73-year-old South Dakota resident, has been confirmed as the great-grandson and closest living descendant of Sitting Bull, the legendary Lakota leader. This connection was verified through a pioneering DNA analysis of a preserved lock of Sitting Bull’s hair. Born in 1831, Sitting Bull was a chief and medicine man of the Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux, revered for rallying the Sioux tribes to resist settler encroachment in the late 1800s. This discovery bolsters LaPointe’s decades-long mission to relocate his ancestor’s remains to a more culturally significant burial site. According to NBC News, Tatanka Iyotake, or Sitting Bull, was killed by Native American police in 1890 and buried in Mobridge, South Dakota.