Ernie LaPointe, the great-grandson of Lakota Chief Sitting Bull, opposes plans for a monument at his ancestor's burial site in South Dakota.
LaPointe doesn't want the grave site on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation to become a "tourist attraction." So the family is calling for Sitting Bull's remains to be moved to Montana, to the site of the 1876 Little Bighorn battle.
Bryan Defender, a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, and Rhett Albers, a non-Indian, say they are only trying to honor the legacy of Sitting Bull. They want to build a $12 million monument and cultural center at the 40-acre site near Mobridge.
Sitting Bull was buried in North Dakota but his descendants allowed his remains to be moved to South Dakota in 1953. LaPointe says the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe has failed to maintain the grave site.
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