How I love the smell of herbs! There is nothing that smells quite like thyme seasoned on grilled tomatoes, or the freshness of mint tea.  Herbs, which grow in the natural environment, can beautifully flavor and enhance foods.  However, herbs can also have medicinal purposes.  The Lenapes, a Native American tribe, had extensive knowledge of herbs and their power to heal diseases.  In fact, the Lenapes made medicines out of herbs, roots, plants, and bark.  For example, they would brew a special tea called catnip tea, which is a plant that is related to the mint family, for a sick member of the tribe, or strengthen the infirm by covering them with strawberry leaves.  There are two fascinating things about these natural or organic cures.  The first is that the herbs worked effectively to alleviate their ailments.    This can be assumed because the history of using herbs  as medicine is long and well intwined in the Lenape society.  The second is that the herbs healed diseases we still have today, such as rheumatism.  Therefore, it is not surprising that some of the organic cures have been passed down to our society.   Many medicines now contain at least one ingredient derived from plants.

Through this picture, it is clear that the Lenapes were dependent on the natural environment in order to maintain their health.  There may have been hundreds of herbs that had medicinal purposes, but  the Lenapes tended to move from site to site, based on the seasons.  What did they do if they needed the herb that cured cold symptoms but there was non growing nearby? There was no pharmacy for them to pick some up.  It is possible that they carried certain herbs with them from place to place, or that many herbs cured the same thing.  If this were the case, the Lenapes had a vital and continuous relationship with the natural environment, as they were always bringing the parts of nature they deemed important, the healing herbs, with them.

The Lenapes also respected the natural environment.  Not only did they understand the medicinal effect of herbs, and how something so small could have such a large impact on their health, but they also respected the environment that the plants grew in.  The Lenapes did not run through nature cutting down every catnip plant they saw.  They treated the plants with dignity, as would be appropriate to something with such great powers.  There was a procedure for collecting plants that had to be followed with respect to proper rituals, otherwise the cures did not work.  This included dropping a tobacco offering at the first plant the collector found and then picking the next plant of the same kind.  In addition, bark was only peeled from healthy trees.  The Lenapes took their rituals seriously.  They believed in the curative effects of the herbs, and while being dependent on the natural environment to provide the plants, the Lenapes respected the natural environment from where the herbs grew.  The Lenapes were in a constant, dependable, but respectable relationship with the natural environment.

When my refrigerator is running low on food, I drive over to my nearest supermarket. I load up my shopping cart with fruits, vegetables, meat, and dairy. Then I proceed to checkout and return home with relatively little effort exerted. Drastically different, the Paleoindians were not able to shop for food this way instead they were hunter-gatherers. When the Paleoindians needed to feed their family, they had to go out and kill an animal, which would then be their source of food. A single mammoth kill was enough to feed around twenty to forty people. Some of the meat would be eaten right away, while the rest of the animal would be preserved for more long-term use. The Paleoindians were adept at using the entirety of a kill for food, clothing, and tools. This practice is something that today’s New York City dwellers should try and keep in mind. Garbage overflows in landfills and some of that garbage probably can be reused!

One specific tribe, the Lenape, was also hunter-gatherers. The Lenape men hunted deer and bear all year long. In autumn, they created large hunting groups, which included women that would go out and kill many deer. They used a technique called a “fire surround” in which they essentially trapped deer in a ring of fire and then forced them into traps or snares. They also pursued geese, swans, pigeons, and turkeys by using nets or arrows. Fish was also part of their diet; the fish were caught using lances and long drag nets. Estuaries were a great source of food because they provided oysters, clams, mussels, and crabs.

The Lenape’s relationship with their environment was one of necessity. The Lenape relied on the animals living around them for sustenance. By virtue of being hunter-gatherers, they were dependent on the land because they needed somewhere to hunt. The earth is diverse and therefore supplied the Lenape with a varying diet that included mammals, fowl, fish, and seafood. I’m sure the Lenape truly appreciated the land that they owed their life to much more than today’s urban population. Mostly everyone, including myself, repeats the supermarket shopping experience on a regular basis in order to have food. Imagine if that wasn’t an option. We would all have to take a page from the Lenape’s and learn to appreciate the goodness that Earth provides straight from the ground and through its natural animal dwellers.

The Lenape peoples’ spiritual relationship with their environment is, I believe, rooted in their physical closeness and dependence on natural resources. Spiritual and religious beliefs arise out of a yearning towards a higher power as a driving force behind the universe. The Lenape, in their utterly nature-dependent lives, had no choice but to trust in nature as the ultimate source of power. Yet they were the ones who managed nature and learned to adapt and control it, and therefore they themselves became a part of the process.

Therefore, the idea of a total interlinking between man, animals, plants, and all other naturally existing elements, formed. Such spiritual beliefs would later be adopted by the American Transcendentalist poets like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Robert Frost, but they originated in Native American tribes and in this case, the Lenape. The idea of maneto, the “spiritual indwelling of all things” ties the people together with the land and the animals. Humans are no more powerful than a rock. Rather, the maneto does not favor one entity over another. By linking themselves spiritually with nature, the Lenape acknowledge their subservience and solidarity with nature despite their ability to cultivate and manipulate resources.

The spirituality of the Lenape sharply contrasts what New York and modern America would become. In most modern societies, nature exists entirely apart from daily life. People live in the age of concrete and technology, and nature becomes “an escape”. Resources are cultivated and processed by specialists for broader society to enjoy. We do not live in constant contact with naturally existing resources, and therefore there is no spiritual connection to the land. In a weird way, we develop religious tendencies towards the entities that are most poignant in our lives. The current generation has an attachment to technology that uncannily reflects the Lenape attitude towards nature. The Lenape had a need to be constantly favoring the spirits that surrounded them in all natural things. They brought sacrifices and attributed and fixed all problems likewise. The current generation does not entrust its well-being in crops, but in phones and and other gadgets. While we may think that the Lenape relationship to the cosmos is a foreign concept in modern, intellectually leaning (and atheism prone) society, this sort of total subservience still exists, it is just manifested differently

This isn’t to say that I think that the Lenape’s focus on spirituality with regard to nature is necessarily superior and our generation is lost and such and such. They held “fluid boundaries” with their natural surroundings, and our smartphones are pretty much limbs at this point. Does that make us any worse off? Unclear, I think. But at the very least we have a basis of comparison that we can relate to so that we can better understand the Lenape’s spiritual connection to the cosmos.

America nowadays is known, sometimes notoriously, for its excess. From the flashy homes to the overabundance of goods in the market, it is a wonder that many years ago, people were forced to lead modest lifestyles simply because they did not have the means to survive otherwise. A clear case in American history of a people creatively stretching the little they had was the hunting and gathering of the Lenape Indians. Through this lifestyle, the Lenape tribe was entirely dependent on nature, exploiting, yet without an ounce of prodigality, all of the resources available in the great outdoors.

Despite what the title connotes, “hunting” is a term that is broad in scope; for the Lenapes, this process described catching various animals that provide protein and sustenance.  A major component of hunting involved game, but it is important to note that the Lenape also fished and hunted fowl; thus, they did not exclusively use one resource, which could have quickly led to extinction of many large, meaty species. In order to hunt game, the Lenape did not run after them with spears, as cartoons often inaccurately depict. Rather, they would first set fire to a portion of the forest, which would cause the animals to flee into traps. This method was efficient in capturing the game because it did not require too much energy to catch them. ‘Fire surround’ could have easily had a detrimental effect to the natural environment. However, the Lenape spread the ashes of the trees on the ground to ensure that the soil was rejuvenated and would remain fertile. In doing so, they consequently found a way to utilize the ashes that resulted from the fire and protected one of the most precious resources they had which would be vital for growing agriculture in the future: earth.

The ground is where the gatherers found the food that supplemented the protein. Done by women, gathering involved collecting various agricultural items that were found in the wilderness, ranging from fruits, vegetables, berries, and nuts. Proper gathering, however, took a great deal of getting in touch with nature. To ensure that you lived another day after eating a day’s gatherings entailed a keen knowledge as to what was nutritious and what was poisonous.  Over time, women became adept at knowing the difference. In fact, when picking, they would pluck out bothersome weeds so as to clear the way for other things that were growing. In that way, the Lenapes promoted the growth of plants that were beneficial to humans.

While hunting and gathering required a close interaction with nature because of food, this lifestyle also extended to other aspects of life. For example, the Lenape moved seasonally. They changed their setting depending on the season, which, in turn, caused them to eat different food. By switching locations, local game population had a chance to replenish itself; otherwise, there would have been overhunted. Additionally, the temperature inevitably affected the Lenapes’ comfort level, for they chose to live in wigwams during the summer. Wigwams, furnished by portable, impermanent things, were therefore a tangible reminder of Lenapes’ semi-nomadic way of life. Even many tools, often made from shells, were considered “disposable”. The origin of other instruments, on the other hand, traced back to roots in hunting or gathering: needles were created from bones of game, while paint and decorations on various items was from the dye of berries.

The hunter-gatherer lifestyle had a profound impact on the Lenape tribe as a whole. They were not dependent on other nations for food, but rather on nature itself. Finding out just how much nature had to offer, the Lenape took advantage of all the resources they had, in a way that did not harm nature. Hunting and gathering proved itself to be a means of enabling the Lenapes to become a more progressive tribe because it fostered creativity which consequently lead to major advances, such as growing agriculture.

Today, medicine is an exact science.  Without precision and caution the effects of pharmaceuticals can easily turn from positive to negative.  What could possibly soothe a sore throat or cure strep throat can cause pain if made with one wrong chemical, or even taken with the wrong liquid.  As medicine becomes more and more complex, there is one thing that will stay the same.  The reason we have medicine today is because, many generations before, man found a way to use plants as a healing agent.  For example, Indian sage was used to cure “break-bone fever”, which is now known as the flu, and can now be used to remedy the common cold and rheumatism.  They created a way to cooperate with nature in order to survive.

The Lenapes had a special relationship with nature.  They respected and tried to mimic the ways of nature in order to use plants for their own purposes.  In City at the Water’s Edge, they state that American Indians “experienced and evolved with the indigenous native flora.”  Because of the relationship they developed with their environment, they knew almost everything there was to know about the indigenous herbs.  Those who knew the special properties of every single native plant had what was known as “green medicine.”  Especially skillful men and women had dreams or visions from the spirit world and became “medicine people,” which were basically healers and meditators who used herbs and medicinal brews to redeem others’ health.  They made medicine from plants, toots, bark, and herbs that they found around in their surroundings.  However, the Lenapes did not just take away from nature, they found a way to give back.

In order to live in peace with nature, the Lenapes performed many rituals before gathering certain herbs and plants.  If these rituals were not done correctly, or at all, the remedies made from these plants would not be effective.  They would first stop at the first type of plant that they needed and drop a tobacco offering in a hole that was dug east of it.  Only after they have given the offering would they pick the next plant of the same kind.  When taking bark from a tree, they would only strip bark from healthy trees and from the side facing the sun.  Although this procedure was probably more for their benefit, they used what they knew about the health of the wildlife around them to help their own health.  When herbalists were preparing a medicinal brew, they stir it counterclockwise “to simulate the direction the sun travels.”  Using patterns of nature to enhance their quality of well-being shows that the Lenapes respected it enough to learn from it.

“Honor and respect our lives, our beings, in life and death. Do what you have failed to do before. Stop doing what offends our Spirits.” The War Chief gave his promise, and the animals returned with the warriors to the Lenape homeland. That is why, as the storyteller concludes, “Ever since that time we Lenape have always offered tobacco and shown the utmost respect when hunting or upon killing an animal for food. We never took more than we needed, and we used as much of the animal’s remains as we could.”

The Lenapes’ relationship with the natural environment was greatly influenced by their practice of cosmology. They believed that all living and nonliving things had a spirit within them, called a maneto. The manito’wak could cause mischief in the Lenape society if they were displeased or offended by the people. To appeal to the manito’wak, the Lenapes performed seasonal rituals in the spirits’ honor. One of the rituals was in honor of the Keeper of the Game, in which the fat of the first buck killed was offered as a sacrifice. Other rituals included the sacrifice of the first fruits, offerings of  burnt corn to the deer and bear spirits, and offerings of fish shaped bread to the fish spirit. Tobacco also played an important role in these spiritual rituals. All of these ceremonies and sacrificial offerings were done to insure a bountiful outcome, whether of fruit, fish, or game, and to give thanks to the spirits for any previous bountiful outcomes. The Lenape believed that honoring the spirits with these rituals was necessary, and failure to carry out the rituals would result in terrible consequences. In order to have the food and resources that were essential to the survival of their people, the Lenape had to give thanks to the spirits that were believed to control such things. Otherwise, they would have unsuccessful hunting and gathering experiences and would struggle to survive.

The Lenape’s practice of spiritual rituals showed the highest respect for the natural environment. They only took what they needed from nature, and regularly thanked nature and the “spirits of nature” for allowing them to use its resources for survival. They recognized and respected the power of nature, from the natural resources they used for crafting to the animals they consumed: “To replace what you have taken by making a tobacco offering is a recognition or acknowledgement of the life you take, whether it is a tree cut down to make baskets or an animal killed for food”. Their belief that things both living and nonliving had indwelling spirits led to their reverence for everything in the natural environment.

Today, we might think of offering sacrifices to spirits as absurd. However, the Lenape’s belief in cosmology and spiritual rituals had the purpose of expressing gratitude towards nature, and this practice had a positive impact on the natural environment. Rather than abusing the land, the Lenape people took care of it and practiced a kind of give-and-take relationship with nature. This shows that the Lenape were thoughtful about their impact on nature, and took the utmost care in making sure that it was fully appreciated. The Lenape clearly had a positive, appreciative relationship with the natural environment.

While their ideas may differ greatly from our current “scientific” perspectives, the Lenapes held a deep and complex understanding of cosmology – their theories behind the natural order of the universe – and maintained an admirably intimate relationship with the natural world.

According to their creation myth, the Lenapes believed that in ancient times, no earth existed; there was only a vast realm of water below and a sky above, where the first humans lived. One day, the sky opened up, and through the hole fell a young woman and a tree. Aided by the “Great Turtle” and a council of creatures, the tree was planted to provide shelter for the woman and the earth emerged. There the tree grew, bending down one of its branches to root in the earth, and from this branch sprang forth the first man who together with the woman would bring forth the future generations of people on Turtle Island (Earth).

To govern the earth, the Lenapes believed their Creator god produced the manito’wak (lower spirits), which included the Earth Mother, Corn Mother, and the Keeper of the Game. Furthermore, the Lenapes believed all objects were imbued with a spirit – from rocks to clouds – and recognized no clear division between living and nonliving. Using the word maneto to label the indwelling spirit in everything, they referred back to this idea of a Creator and maneto to identify all that was strange or wondrous beyond comprehension. If the maneto – the imbued spirits – were offended, the Lenape believed the spirits would cause harm, and thus performed seasonal rituals to offer to the Keeper of the Game. For example, plants were viewed as part of the “sacred circle” of life, and often burnt offerings of corn were made to different spirits. In another example, tobacco would be offered to the forest before entering for hunting and gathering to ensure positive outcomes and offer thanks.

Although it may be difficult for us to understand or perceive the world through the eyes of the Lenape people, it proves worthwhile to recognize their consistent expression of gratitude for nature. As quoted in City at the Water’s Edge, through ceremony, ritual, and dreamwork – cultural manners we may find unusual – the Lenapes sought to convey respect for the healing power of nature: “To replace what you have taken by making a tobacco offering is a recognition or acknowledgement of the life you take, whether it is a tree cut down to make baskets or an animal killed for food.” Though such methods may have remained environmentally harmful, if nothing, the Lenapes at least took the time to consider their affect on nature, be thankful for what they had, and seek some way of giving back – an understanding we unfortunately lack greatly in our world today.

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

“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.

Before the world was filled with the modern cities that it is today, there was simply land covered with grass, forests, dirt, and rocks.  At that time, humans had not yet adapted the concept of agriculture, and survived in a semi-nomadic state.  Their culture, lifestyles and survival depended completely on what they could hunt and catch.  This nomadic existence and people’s ability to adapt to their environment enabled them to survive the harsh conditions of the ice age and, after, the dramatic warming of the climate.  The way of life of these nomadic people not only benefited them, but also was also relatively respectful of the environment.

The Lenape have a legend that has been passed down through generations.  In this legend, the Animal Spirits escaped to the Giants World and would not return until the people promised that they would start treating the Natural Spirits with respect.  It is because of this legend that these nomadic people never abused nature.  They took what they needed to survive and used everything to its fullest extent.  When they would kill a mammoth, they would not only eat the meat, but also use the bones for tools and save other parts for later use.  One mammoth could feed from 20-40 people, and sometimes there would still be carcass left over.

Not only did these people kill sparingly, but they also did not stay in the same place for too long.  They needed to go where the food was, and when the food has four legs; the food is not likely to stay in the same place for an extended period of time.  This constant moving was beneficial to the environment.  Although these people disturbed the ecosystem where they stayed, it was not devastating.  The Lenapes were only in one place for a relatively short period of time; and when they left, it was fairly simple for the ecosystem to repair itself.  Now, people have stayed in the same place for so long, some ecosystems have been permanently altered.

When the mammoths, mastodons and giant beavers no longer walked the earth, the Early Archaic people had to learn to adapt and find a new food source.  Indeed, as the culture was completely dependent on these animals, it was very probable that some died out, while others split in search of a new way of life.  Some were able to diversify their diet with elk, caribou, fish, rabbit and acorns.  To adapt, they discovered that boiling the acorns made them edible, without the bitter taste.  They kept moving, always settling for a time near water, and then moving to the next camping grounds.  It was not until the population grew to an extent that there was not enough hunting grounds did they have to turn to a bigger, more stable food source: agriculture.  But until then, these nomadic people did not kill in excess; they took what they needed and nothing more.  Then, the environment could sustain us as a visitor, but as a permanent houseguest today, we seem to be on a path headed for destruction.