Behavior of animals, trends in populations, weather conditions, anything having to do with the environment. One area of Native culture, the traditional medicinal uses of plants, caught the keen interest of the global pharmaceutical industry. That has caused the growing interest in intellectual property rights. Henrikson said Native groups have an interest in protecting valuable knowledge that has commercial value. Natives may not have done a chemical analysis, but they've known for years that certain plants have medicinal properties.
Companies exploit that to invent and patent new drugs, and make billions of dollars.
But they never would have thought of it without the people from whom they gained the knowledge initially. The Juneau Empire.