“What do you do?” This is one of the first questions asked when two people are becoming acquainted. Common responses might include doctor, teacher, lawyer, or accountant. Rarely does a person respond with the phrase “I am a farmer”. In our modern, industrialized society, fewer and fewer people are making their livings directly through agriculture. In the much earlier times of the Lenape Native Americans, agriculture was everything to these people because farming was a crucial way of surviving without modern technologies. The way in which the Lenapes utilized agriculture greatly impacted their relationship to and interaction with the natural environment.

For a long period of time, the Lenapes mostly relied on small-scale cultivation of their native plant species. About a thousand years ago, some Lenapes made the switch to the cultivation of maize. Eventually, the entire Lenape society shifted to maize-centered agriculture but the decision to do so, McCully writes, was entirely dependent on the natural environment. The Lenapes had to determine whether or not their soil would be reliable enough to withstand such a drastic shift. Luckily, the natural environment of the New York City Lenape region had sandy soil that was ideal for growing crops. According to newhopepa.com, the Lenapes used primitive tools such as bone, wood, and shells to grow crops. Such tools came directly from the natural environment and therefore must have required the Lenapes to have a good sense of their natural surroundings in order to know where and when the tools were available.

The Lenapes’ shift to maize-centered agriculture drastically changed their relationship to the natural world. Rather than using their previous method of depending solely on available resources to survive, the Lenapes could now take control and become “managers” of their land. I interpreted this to mean that as opposed to passively accepting the available, the Lenapes could now choose what they wanted to be available and when. They could manipulate the natural environment to suit their needs, rather than merely taking what they were given. For example, the Lenapes had the agricultural tools and knowledge to regularly use fire to clear fields and keep down weeds in areas where they wanted to grow crops. This “controlled burning” not only improved the soil, but it more importantly created “edge” habitats between grasslands and forests that attracted hunting animals and facilitated the growth of edible berries.

The seasons also played a large role in the Lenape use of agriculture. Because each season offered something different in terms of agriculture, the Lenapes’ entire way of life was dependent on the natural rhythm of the seasons. For example, during the summer they stayed near the coast to more easily grow crops. The Lenape use of agriculture rendered them a mostly sedentary people who moved only according to the seasons. As a result, the Lenape culture respected the natural world by not staying in one place long enough to be damaging with their agricultural methods as well as frequently switching their agricultural methods to best make use of each aspect of the natural environment.