The Lenape treated everything honorably, and like they used all of the meat of animals in order to appease the spirits, they used all of the plants they dug. They had the utmost respect for every plant, tree, herb, leaf, and piece of bark because they thought that they had spirits. Every time the Lenape dug something out, they had a purpose for that natural resource. They performed rituals, offering tobacco and prayers before digging the plants out, showing that they had reverent attitude towards nature.

Although all the Lenape had the basic knowledge of the medicinal value of certain plants and herbs, only two kinds of medical practitioners specialized in treating serious physical problems.  Usually, only those who  received visions or dreams from the spirit world could become meteinuwak, or medicine people. The first type of medical practitioners were herbalists; by applying natural remedies, they cured diseases and healed wounds and infections. Besides knowing the qualities of herbs, plants, barks, and roots, the Themeteinu or medew asserted that they knew how to handle witchcraft and occult practices; they were believed to heal people that had supernatural illnesses  by chasing away evil spirits. 

The Lenape medical practitioners were meticulous in gathering each plant while considering the needs of the patient’s body. They properly diagnosed the diseases, and carefully examined each plant. The Lenape medicine practitioners had specific prayers and preparations for each plant because they thought the plants’ uses would be rendered useless if they had no respect for them. Because they had an extensive knowledge of the uses of many flora species, they didn’t recklessly waste anything. For example, they had multiple uses for the common cattail; they externally applied the roots to treat burns, and cattail pollen was used for medicine and food. Additionally, in the winter, the roots were used for food and treatment of diarrhea, gonorrhea, and worms. . Plant species were never endangered as a result of the Lenape’s exploitation of nature; however, many plant species are endangered from the 21st century world’s wasteful and inconsiderate practices. Therefore, even though they took advantage of nature’s benefits, they never wasted anything in the environment, thereby making a minimal impact on nature’s resourcefulness