Natural History museum returning Sitting Bull artifacts

Great-grandson of Lakota chief plans to bury items with famous leader

By Katie Brown, Journal staff | Thursday, September 20, 2007

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Ernie LaPointe of Lead, the great-grandson of Hunkpapa Lakota leader Sitting Bull, will fly to Washington, D.C., next month to receive items taken from Sitting Bull that have been on display at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of History.

LaPointe, 59, and his three older sisters will receive a pair of leggings and a lock of hair taken from Sitting Bull's body by a mortician in Fort Yates, N.D., after his death.

Sitting Bull was shot to death in 1890 by reservation police.

"By law, because these things were taken off his body after he was dead, that's why the Smithsonian is making an exception," LaPointe said.

LaPointe's mother was the daughter of Sitting Bull's youngest daughter with his first wife, Seen By Her Nation.

LaPointe first discovered the existence of the leggings and lock of hair in 2002, when a Smithsonian researcher attempting to locate blood relatives of Sitting Bull found LaPointe.

LaPointe said it took the past five years to get final approval for the items to be returned to him because researchers had to verify that he and his sisters were the closest living blood relatives to Sitting Bull.

"They have to have full proof of identity of the person before they return the items," he said. "That's why it took so long."

Although the process seemed long, LaPointe said he is glad he went through it. Not only does it mean the return of meaningful items, but the extensive research established that LaPointe and his three older sisters are Sitting Bull's closest living blood relatives.

LaPointe said that now there is no doubt on that issue.

For LaPointe, receiving the leggings and lock of hair means he can provide some closure for Sitting Bull.

Though Sitting Bull died many years before LaPointe was born, LaPointe said he feels his great-grandfather's energy.

He said there is meaning in having the items returned not because Sitting Bull was a famous leader, but because he was a real person and his great-grandfather.

LaPointe said he was disappointed with how Sitting Bull was portrayed in the recent HBO series "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee."

LaPointe said he e-mailed producers while the show was being filmed but never heard from them.

"That's not how my grandfather really was," he said. "Why didn't they come and ask his descendents?"

LaPointe said the story of Sitting Bull has been romanticized throughout history, and he wants to change that.

"I'm no one; I'm just Ernie LaPointe, but I want to be a voice for my great-grandfather, because he doesn't have a voice anymore," LaPointe said. "I try to tell the story the way my mother told it to me."

Although he never met Sitting Bull, LaPointe said while growing up, his relatives told him much about his great-grandfather.

LaPointe said he and his sisters hope to have a ceremony in which the lock of hair and leggings can be buried with Sitting Bull.

He said they will more than likely have a presentation to allow members of the media and public to view the items before they are buried.

LaPointe and his sisters also are working toward having Sitting Bull's grave moved from near Mobridge to Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument in Montana.

LaPointe said to move the grave, he must get approval, which has not been easy. He said he has faced some resistance from South Dakota officials who do not want the grave moved.

"It angers me that he's treated like a piece of property," he said. "He used to be a human being. He shouldn't be treated like that."

Contact Katie Brown at 394-8318 or katie.brown@rapidcityjournal.com