He Said Sitting Bull Was His Great-Grandfather. DNA From a Lock of Hair Supported His Family’s Story.

What the evidence that is accessible allows — clearly and without overstatement — is this: Ernie LaPointe has carried the knowledge of his relationship to Tatanka-Iyotanka his entire life. A study published in one of the world’s leading peer-reviewed scientific journals concluded, after fourteen years of work on a degraded century-old hair sample, that the genetic data were consistent with that relationship. The family’s knowledge preceded the science. The science provided confirmation within the limits of what probabilistic genetic analysis of degraded ancient DNA can establish.

That is the story. It was always the story. The DNA just let a wider audience hear it.