So then we put in an application to have a lock of his hair and a pair of his leggings that were taken off of his body after he was killed repatriated to us. He established that we are the closest living relatives to Sitting Bull-the great-grandchildren. He took copies and went back to Washington and he basically did thorough research on all the documents and everything we told him. He flew over here in a couple of days and we showed him all of our documentation, like birth and death certificates. I told him there are four of us who are the closest relatives to Sitting Bull. He didn't know who I was, but he decided to contact me in 2002. The Smithsonian was looking for descendants of Sitting Bull, and there was an individual at Smithsonian who told Bill Billeck that maybe he should contact me. Now LaPointe, Sitting Bull's great-grandson, talks about the repatriation process and how the story of his famous great-grandfather has been so misunderstood. Billeck established that Ernie LaPointe, who is 59 and living in Lead, South Dakota, and his three sisters represent the only living relatives of the Native chief. The doctor obtained the hair and leggings and sent them to the museum in 1896.įor five years, Bill Billeck, director of the museum's Repatriation Office, thoroughly investigated the family of Sitting Bull to determine his closest living descendants. After Sitting Bull was fatally shot by Native American police in 1890, his body was in the custody of a temporary army doctor at the Fort Yates military base in North Dakota. The Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux chief and medicine man led his people against the European invasion in the late 19th century. A lock of hair and wool leggings belonging to Sitting Bull will soon be repatriated by the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., to his closest living relatives.
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