I think we have to allow for emerging identities. That's basically my thread. Traditionalists (the op) are important and necessary because they hold onto important knowledge.

But diaspora and urban Indigenous inevitably means emerging identity with combined medicine.

Corn provides a striking model for this. It is so central to some civilizations that it features in their creation stories. It is food and it is also medicine. And there are songs and ceremonies related to it that are different in different civilizations.

Who owns it?

Corn, maize, didn't always exist. We know that. It developed over centuries of hybridization and selecting for traits. It was such a complex process that for a while scientists didn't even think it was related to teosinte, but other scientists proved that it is.

It started in Mexico, went down to Peru where it developed more, came back to Mexico where it transformed that society and then travelled across the continent to the Hauds.

It is food and medicine and ceremony.

Who owns it?

We are corn.

We do not exist as we did thousands of years ago. We also have developed over centuries of hybridization and selecting for traits. We continue to develop and right now a new people is emerging. The Anishnaabe aren't the only ones with this prophecy btw.