Museum returns stolen lock of Sitting Bull's hair to descendants
WASHINGTON (AFP) — A US museum has decided to return a lock of hair and leggings worn by legendary American Indian chief Sitting Bull after learning that they were stolen by an army doctor at the time of his death more than 100 years ago.
"As part of doing research on our collection as part of the repatriation law, we realized how these objects had been acquired and they hadn't been acquired properly," said Bill Billeck, director of the National Museum of Natural History's Repatriation Office.
"That's the reason why it has triggered us to do this work and to look for family members," he said.
Sitting Bull was a Lakota chief best known for defeating General George Custer in the 1876 Battle of Little Bighorn in Montana. He was killed on December 15, 1890, two weeks before the Battle of Wounded Knee, the last major battle between US forces and American Indians.
The lock of hair is braided and narrow, about 16 inches (40 centimeters) long, and the wool leggings are a traditional type worn by Indians of the period, Billeck said.
After Sitting Bull's death, his body was transported to a military fort where an army doctor, Horace Deeble, took the hair and leggings and six years later sent them to the museum for display.
"These are the only objects that I know that this doctor took. There are many objects that Sitting Bull owned during his life in the US that are in collections across the country," Billeck said.
"The question that we often have is there are many more objects than probably he could have ever had, because he was famous and things were attributed to him that may not be from him."
However, the Sitting Bull's great-grandson Ernie LaPointe, who requested the items be returned, said he was grateful to finally have them back.
The repatriation "will bring closure to my grandfather and I hope that it will lead to a healing among the lineal and collateral descendants of Sitting Bull and the Lakota Nation," he said.
