By Sara Kincaid
Webmaster's Note: This article appeared in the
November 18, 2007 issue of the "Bismarck Tribune."
When Sitting
Bull’s name passes the lips of Ernie LaPointe, the words great-grandfather
follow.
For many people, Sitting Bull is a famed Indian spiritual leader. His name
is said in the same breath as George Custer and the Battle of Little Big
Horn. But, the man depicted in movies and books is different from the man
LaPointe’s mother told him about as a child.
“I kept quiet about this,” he said. “It was my mother’s wish not to brag
about it.” His mother is Angeline LaPointe, who is the daughter of Sitting
Bull’s youngest daughter, Standing Holy.
But, Sitting Bull’s family tree has many branches. He had four wives and
adopted his sister’s son. The family of his fourth wife and his adopted
son make equal claim to Sitting Bull’s heritage.
Now the Smithsonian Institution decided this fall that the LaPointes are
the only direct descendants when repatriating a pair of leggings and a
lock of hair taken from Sitting Bull. While it seems to be an easy
decision for the Smithsonian, based on blood relation, it is not such a
clear distinction on the reservation.
The items came to the Smithsonian through an Army doctor, who loaned them
to the museum. The items were never displayed. Usually museums display
only a small percentage of their items.
In 1890, Sitting Bull was living on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation
and interested in the Ghost Dance movement. The Ghost Dance was meant to
rid the world of white people. Sitting Bull was killed when resisting
arrest by reservation police.
“I suspect Sitting Bull is the most, or best-known individual in the
United States or abroad,” said Bill Billeck, Smithsonian repatriation
program manager and case manager for the Plains.
The Smithsonian Institution started looking for direct descendants of
Sitting Bull in 1999. Billeck’s office notified all the Sioux tribes,
trying to find a relative. Lineal descendants, who can be traced by blood
lines, have first right to the objects, Billeck said.
Billeck heard of LaPointe and visited him. LaPointe shared his mother’s
stories, as well as a documented family tree. Billeck told him about the
lock of hair and a pair of leggings. They were the leggings he wore when
he was killed and the braid from where he wore his feather.
The repatriation process on the items started in 2003. This involved
verifying LaPointe’s relationship to Sitting Bull. The Smithsonian also
notified the Sioux tribes about the artifacts and how they were acquired.
While Billeck researched the LaPointe connection to Sitting Bull, the
LaPointes wanted to know if the items were really their
great-grandfather’s. They went to Washington, D.C., to see the items, and
they performed a ceremony for them. Seeing the items in person was like
lifting a veil to the past and understanding a great truth.
“It is really touching,” LaPointe said. “You realize a lot of things. It’s
part of history ... If it wasn’t for him, I’d not be talking to you. It is
a humbling experience.”
The outcome of the Smithsonian’s study is LaPointe, his siblings, his
children and grandchildren are the only known lineal descendants of
Sitting Bull. People had 30 days to respond to the Smithsonian’s findings
and make claims on the items. The LaPointes will be given the items the
first week of December, according to the Smithsonian.
“Yes, they should (recognize it), because the ceremony is sacred,” said
Isaac Dog Eagle, great-grandson of One Bull, about the Smithsonian’s’
ruling on descendants.
One Bull was Sitting Bull’s adopted son and his nephew, based on a family
tree in “Der Letzte Indianer.” Cecilia One Bull, who was One Bull’s
daughter, told Isaac Dog Eagle about his great-great-grandfather, Sitting
Bull. Dog Eagle tells his own children about Sitting Bull, just as his
grandmother once told him. Dog Eagle’s relationship to Sitting Bull is no
different than any other relative, he said. He sees a different man than
the one whom people make grand statements about.
“It is just people trying to make something of his life,” Dog Eagle said
“He did a lot of good things for his people.”
He knows the circumstances of the relationship between Sitting Bull and
one Bull was unique, because One Bull was adopted at about 3 or 4 years
old in a ceremony, Dog Eagle said. It made One Bull as much Sitting Bull’s
child as his other children.
Another member of the Standing Rock Tribe claims Sitting Bull in his
family tree. Tribal Chairman Ron His Horse Is Thunder is related to One
Bull, based on previous interviews. He is a great-great-great grandson of
Sitting Bull through his mother, Ina McNeil. She is the daughter of Annie
Broughtplenty, who is the daughter of Cecilia One Bull. His Horse Is
Thunder did not return numerous phone calls and messages seeking his
comment.
Ernie LaPointe is the son of Angeline LaPointe, who is the daughter of
Standing Holy, who is the daughter of Sitting Bull and Seen by the Nation.
The adoption ceremony gives One Bull equal standing with blood relatives
in Sitting Bull’s family, Dog Eagle said. The Smithsonian, however, only
wants the closest relative. For example, there are four generations
between Sitting Bull and His Horse Is Thunder, three generations between
Sitting Bull and Dog Eagle, and two generations between Sitting Bull and
LaPointe, which makes him the closest relative of these three Sitting Bull
descendants. LaPointe matches the Smithsonian’s requirements to be the
closest bloodline relative.
The return of the items will allow LaPointe to bury the piece of hair with
Sitting Bull, “because it is his.” The leggings could be buried with him
or displayed in a museum at the site. He and his sisters will ask for an
answer to this question in a ceremony.
He did many ceremonies before coming forward, because he knew how strongly
his mother didn’t want him to talk about it. He thinks about the elders
before him who have died, and their stories have gone with them. He’s been
asked many times how he wants people to remember Sitting Bull. He asked
the spirit.
“I got this answer. My great-grandfather was wrote about as a chief or
medicine man, but remember him as a sun dancer,” LaPointe said. “If you
know the significance, (the sun dance) is the most ultimate gift to give
to your nation of people. The suffering is not for you, but for your
people, so the future generation can live and the elderly can live another
year and for the sick to get better.”
The sun dance is a four-day ceremony and the dancer does not eat or drink
during that time, said LaPointe, who also is a sun dancer. His
great-grandfather had visions from ceremonies that foretold of battles and
his death.
“People said he was fighting a losing cause, but he still cared and stood
up for them,” LaPointe said.
The vision of the Little Big Horn site is “Peace for Unity.” It is a goal
Sitting Bull worked toward in his lifetime and one LaPointe works toward
for his great-grandfather.
He wants to move his great-grandfather’s burial site to the place of his
greatest vision: Battle of the Little Big Horn. Sitting Bull gathered
several American Indian nations at the valley of Little Big Horn to fight
against the 7th Cavalry, led by Lt. Col. George Custer, who died at that
battle.
Sitting Bull is buried in Mobridge, S.D. LaPointe is unhappy with the
state of the grave site and wants to move him.
An aunt came to LaPointe in 1992, telling him he needed to start telling
people of his lineage because of the state of Sitting Bull’s grave in
South Dakota. It was littered, used for high school parties and
vandalized.
“People were running roughshod over my grandfather’s grave,” in Mobridge,
he said. It made him feel bad. The site was littered and used as a place
for high school parties. A bust of Sitting Bull was vandalized.
Moving him is contentious, with the Standing Rock Tribe protesting it.
Plans are in motion to recognize Sitting Bull at two burial sites, the one
in Mobridge and the other in Fort Yates.
The Mobridge burial site, which is one of two sites on the Standing Rock
Reservation claiming to hold Sitting Bull’s remains, is owned by Rhett
Albers and Bryan Defender, who bought the 40-acre Mobridge site in 2005.
They have plans to refurbish the site and build a visitors’ center and
interpretive trail.
In Fort Yates, a new plaque with a portrait and story of Sitting Bull was
dedicated Oct. 1. There also will be shelters and interpretive panels at
the site. Renovation is expected to be done next summer.
By next summer, if LaPointe has his way, Sitting Bull’s grave will be in
Montana.
“I’m not doing this to anger anyone,” LaPointe said. “If we’re related,
take care of the grave site.”
An opportunity came up to move Sitting Bull’s remains to the Little Big
Horn battlefield. He and his sisters are working with the U.S. Park
Service to move him to a site there, hopefully in time for the anniversary
next year.
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