Reading through the chapter on the Lenape people of pre-colonial North America, one of the aspects of their lifestyle that struck me was the deeply symbiotic nature of the relationship that the Lenape shared with their natural environment.  As the Lenape cultivated, protected and sustained their surroundings, the plants they lived with gave back in an equal manner in terms of both sustenance and reparation.  The reparation I mention came in the form of healing processes that the Lenape contrived from their knowledge of various herbs and plants, which they were intimately familiar with.

This idea of “green medicine” was a sacred one to the Lenape.  One who was considered talented and intelligent enough to have knowledge of the properties of every native plant was placed on the level of a prophet and could only achieve the level of a “medicine person” by having a spirit dream and being infused with a personally binding understanding of the flora and fauna.  Since there was an almost religious aspect attached to the medicinal characteristics, the healer was required to retrieve the plants with a great amount of respect and ceremony – lest the remedy not succeed.

Much of the attitude of the Lenape towards plant life and the environment in general stems from their belief in karmic renderings affecting their lives.  While respect for plant life and “Mother Earth” might not have been inherent to their culture as an absolute and considered necessary for the reasons we consider today when debating whether to recycle that milk container or not, the Lenape still treated their surroundings in a way that they believed would help them live a sustainable lifestyle.  However different their lifestyle might be from ours, I think it is an important lesson that can be learned from these ancient Native Americans.