He has described wanting a reburial in a more appropriate location, with a traditional Lakota ceremony that Sitting Bull never received. He said that “sure as heck won’t be Standing Rock” — reflecting his position that the current situation at Mobridge, and the history of how his great-grandfather’s body was handled, represents an ongoing failure to honor Sitting Bull properly.
His mother, Angelique LaPointe Spotted Horse, was actually involved in the 1953 move to Mobridge — a detail that adds complexity to the family history around the burial sites. The 1953 reburial was not opposed by all family members at the time. The disagreements within and around the family over the decades reflect the complexity of a situation in which commercial interests, state politics, tribal governance, and family authority have all collided around the remains of a man who had become, in death as in life, a contested symbol.
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## What DNA Can and Cannot Do in Indigenous Ancestry
The Sitting Bull DNA study represents one instance of a broader question that has grown more pressing as genetic genealogy has become more capable: what is the appropriate role of DNA in establishing Indigenous ancestry and identity?
The question matters because DNA has been applied to Indigenous ancestry in ways that range from the genuinely useful to the deeply problematic.
On the potentially useful side, DNA has helped repatriate remains that could not otherwise be identified, connected families with ancestors whose documentary records were incomplete or destroyed, and provided additional confirmation for lineage claims that other evidence already supported — as in LaPointe’s case.