The correct Question is: How we can use Indigenous Traditional Knowledge (ITK) for modern research ?.

ITK is being used in multiple communities and research areas in Alaska.  For recent articles, books, and related citations see:

Cater, Timothy C., Charles Hopson and Bill Streever

2015 The Use of the Iñupiaq Technique of Tundra Sodding to Rehabilitate Wetlands in Northern Alaska. Arctic 68(4):435-444.

"Tundra sodding, a new technique available to rehabilitate disturbed wetlands in the Arctic, is based on Inupiaq traditional knowledge. C. Hopson, an Iñupiaq elder from Barrow and author of this paper, guided the development and field application of this new technique by providing traditional knowledge he learned as a youth from his elders. Tundra sodding has several advantages ofer other land rehabilitation techniques, the most impostant being that it can establish a mature plant community of indigenous species in a single growing season. In all smapling years, the plant communities at sodded sites were cominated by two rhizomatous gramminoids, Eriophorum augustifolium and Carex aquatilis. These sedges also were domiant in all years in the reference tundra. Also common to the plant communities in both reference tundra and sodded sites were 18 other vascular species (grasses, evergreen and deciduous shrubs, and forbs). Results from two to five growing seasons indicate that tundra sod can reduce the overall subsidence due to thawing of shallow permafrost. We harvested sod on three occasions from an area slated for gravel mining. In the summers of 2007 and 2008, we transplanted 334 m2 of tundra sod to portions of three sites to test the feasibility of this method. In summer 2010, we used the experience gained from that work to rehabilitate an entire site (1114 m2). This tundra sodding technique is labor intensive and costly compared to other rehabilitation techniques, but it offers advantages that justify its use when rapid rehabilitation of a disturbed site is needed." (au, p. 435)

Johnson, Noor, Lilian Alessa, Carolina Behe, Finn Danielsen, Shari Gearheard, Victoria Gofman-Wallingford, Andrew Kliskey, Eva-Maria Krummel, Amanda Lynch, Tero Mustonen, Peter Pulsifer and Michael Svoboda

2015 The Contributions of Community-Based Monitoring and Traditional Knowledge to Arctic Observing Networks: Reflections on the State of the Field. Arctic 68(Supplement 1):28-40.

Scafidi, Susan

2005 Who Owns Culture?: Appropriation and Authenticity in American Law. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, NJ and London.

Turek, Michael F., Nancy C. Ratner, William E. Simeone and Davin L. Holen

2009 Subsistence Harvests and Local Knowledge of Rockfish Sebastes in Four Alaskan Communities. Technical Paper No. 337. Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Division of Subsistence, Juneau, Alaska.

http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/techpap/TP337.pdf