There are many opinions
and much conflicting information out there about the Jumano. Because of
this any article on the Jumano should pay attention source material used.
Here is why. Although many of the older sources are pretty good, many of
the OLDER sources contain erroneous and outdated material. These older
sources were doing the best they could with the information they had to
work with and much of what is in them is still valuable. The only comprehensive
up to date source on the Jumano I know of is the book, "The Jumanos",
by Nancy Hickerson, University of Texas Press. Hickerson does a good job
of putting the older information in a new perspective and sorting out and
eliminating conflicting data. Serious students would do better to read
Hickerson first, then read the older sources with Hickersons new
material in mind.
The Jumanos themselves
are another source of confusion. There were at least three distinct groups
of Jumanos each living in a different region. One core area was along the
Rio Grande and Rio Concho rivers in West Texas, in Old Mexico and in New
Mexico. Another core region was on the Southern Plains. The third area
is less know and was between these Rio Grande and the plains. All three
of these groups seemed to travel around a lot and cover long distances.
The Spanish would find visiting west Texas Jumanos in central Texas and
write about them as though they lived in central Texas. Lastly, the Jumano
wore tattoos. So any tattooed Indians the Spanish came across might be
called a Jumano, even if they were not Jumanos. Many other Texas Indian
tribes tattooed themselves. Trying to sort out who was where, doing what
and when from old Spanish records is hard.
The only eye witness
sources of information on the Jumano we have comes from old Spanish accounts.
Many of these accounts are incomplete. Others have only just recently been
discovered and used. Many of the older translations had flaws in them.
It has taken several generations of scholars studying these materials to
finally reconstruct the history of the Jumanos we have now. But there is
still a great deal that needs to be done so expect more changes as more
scholars do more work on this subject.
The Rio Grande branch
of the Jumanos were Puebloan Indians and they lived in Puebloan style villages.
The Pueblos along the Rio Grande north and south of modern El Paso from
the Tompiro Pueblo down to La Junta and smaller villages along the Rio
Concho in Old Mexico formed the core area of historic Jumano culture. These
are the Puebloan Jumanos.
They are called Puebloan
because the houses and buildings they lived in are called Pueblos. A Pueblo
is like a big apartment building. Most have two or more stories. The walls
are usually made from large mud bricks called adobe bricks. If the right
kind of rock is available, many Pueblos would build rock walls. The rooms
are small by our modern standards. A whole family would live in one room.
All the people in a Pueblo are like one big family. WWW.TexasIndians.com
They share most everything. All of the farming and building is done by
the community as a whole. See the Tigua page for
more about Jumano Pueblos and Puebloan Indians.
One of the first contacts
between the Jumano and the Spanish was with the explorer Espejo in 1582.
He found a large village at the mouth of the Concho River where it ends
at the Rio Grande River. He called this village La Junta. La Junta is not
one village. La Junta is actually a group of several villages close to
The Spanish called these
Indians at La Junta the Patarabuays. This name was first used by Spanish
slave raiders. Patarabueys seems to refer to all the Indians of this region
including the Jumanos. There were two or more languages spoken at La Junta
indicating two separate cultures.
The Spanish explorer
Cabeza de Vaca was the first European to reach the La Junta villages some
time around 1530, but he did not record what he saw there very well. The
Spanish slave raiders came next, but did not leave any records of their
trips. The next official Spanish expedition was Espejo in 1582. The Indians
of La Junta were afraid of Espejo at first thinking he was a slave raider.
They told Espejo about Cabeza de Vaca and Estiban whom they still remembered.
Espejo says there were
two groups of Indians living in several villages at La Junta. He found
two languages, maybe three. One group was the Otomoacas and the other was
the Abriaches. The Otomoacas were the Indians we now call Jumanos. The
Abriaches were close friends of the Otomoacas, but spoke a different language.
The Abriaches may have been Concho Indians.
The Concho Indians and
the Jumano were close friends and neighbors. The last of the Conchos probably
joined the Jumanos around 1700.
The now extinct Pueblos
of the Piro and Tompiro Pueblos (see the map) on the Rio Grande north of
El Paso were probably Jumano as well. Spanish colonial records identify
several Pueblos near Gran Quivera as Jumano Pueblos. Their names were Pataotzei,
Genobey, and Cueloce. Cueloce is probably Gran Quivera. The Spanish called
Gran Quivera Las Humanas or The Humans. Gran Quivera is where the
of El Paso say their
ancestors lived. Any student of the Jumanos should read the Tigua page
These Puebloan Jumano
were descendants of the older Mogollon culture of southern New Mexico.
All of these Jumano
and Tigua Pueblos spoke a form of the Tiwa language. Tigua is pronounced
Tiwa in Spanish. Tiwa is in the Tanoan language group. There are three
other Tanoan languages that are important to us. Tewa and Towa and Kiowa-Tanoan.
Tewa and Towa are/ were Spoken by other Pueblos. Kiowa -Tanoan is spoken
by the Kiowa Indians in the Texas Panhandle. Nancy Hickerson says the Kiowa Indians may be a remnant of the Plain's
Jumano and I agree.
These are a lot of different
Pueblos and villages spread over such a large area. What this means is
that the Jumano were probably a number of independent Pueblos and villages
who shared a common culture and language.
Think of the Americans,
Canadians and English who all speak English and share a similar culture.
American, Canada and the England are separate countries with each having
its own government. They all speak the same language and share the same
basic culture, and they are close friends, but each is different. The Jumano
Pueblos were the same culture, but with separate governments.
These Puebloan Jumanos
were farmers who grew corn, beans and squash for food. They made pottery
to store food and seeds in. WWW.Texas Indians.com They also had cotton
and they wove cotton cloth for clothes and blankets.
Espijo says they went
naked most of the time, but wore blankets when it got colder. They were
tattooed over most of their bodies. The men shaved their heads except for
one place right at the top of their head. Here the hair grew long and the
men would tie a feather to this long hair.
They would travel long
distances to trade. The Spanish explorer de Leon found Jumanos from west
Texas in San Marcos Texas, at a trade camp there in 1697.
As their success as
farmers grew so did the population. At some time around the year 1000,
some of the Jumanos left this old homeland and moved east and north. More
followed over the years. Eventually they settled over a large area. This
area includes the Texas panhandle and goes over to near Dallas, south to
Waco and maybe even to near Austin. These Jumanos are called the Plains
Jumanos to distinguish them from the Pueblo Jumanos who lived along the
The next important group
of Jumanos were the Plains Jumano. The plains Jumano did not live in Pueblo
style houses. They may have been semi sedentary. Semi sedentary people
live for a while in one place and may farm there. But they move on to a
new place after the growing season is over. When they move they become
hunter gatherers. The Plains Jumano certainly hunted buffalo and moved
to follow the herds. The Plains Jumano probably lived in tee -pees like
the other nomadic Southern Plains tribes did. Look on the Jumano map for
the villages symbol to see a couple of places where Plains Jumano had villages.
The Plains Jumano were
in a central crossroads territory between two highly developed cultures.
To the east were the Caddo tribes in East Texas and Oklahoma. These Caddo
tribes were part of the larger Southeastern Indian culture and traded with
the Mississippian tribes north and east of them. To the west of the plains
Jumano were the Puebloan tribes living in New Mexico and in northern Old
Mexico. Living between such rich and well developed tribes put them in
a position to act as middle men in trading goods between these areas. Because
of this the Jumano were known as traders. Jumano traders would carry goods
in large baskets on their backs and on dogs with packs and travois from
one side of the plains to the other. This trade area covered a large part
of central Texas and the Pan Handle of Texas. This trade must have been
pretty substantial because old Caddo Indians still remembered it a hundred
years later. French traders say that old Caddo Indians in eastern Oklahoma
would talk about how their grandfathers once traded with the people who
lived far to the west in New Mexico and about the friendly tribe of traders
who once lived between them and the people to the west. They then told
about the hostile people who had moved into that area and drove the friendly
tribe out, stopping the trade. The friendly tribe was probably the Jumano
and the hostile tribe was certainly the Apaches.
When the Spanish explorers
first came they found well used trails that were probably made and used
by these Jumano traders. These trails were used by the Jumano and other
Indian tribes for trade. The old Camino Real road in central Texas is an
old Indian trade route later used by the Spanish. "Camino Real"
is Spanish for "The Kings Highway" It goes from northern
Mexico up to San Antonio to New Braunfels, and San Marcos. It then turns
east to Bastrop and goes to Nacogdoches in East Texas.
Finding these old Indian/Spanish
trails would be a good project for older kids if one is near you. Ask the
local historical society for help. If you come up with anything let us
know and we may publish it here.
The Jumano were probably
taking Bois de Arc wood bows made by the
eastern Oklahoma and Texas to the Pueblos in New Mexico. Buffalo skins
and meat would also have been a good trade item. The New Mexico Pueblos
had valuable trade goods to send east. They had obsidian for making very
sharp tools and maybe some turquoise. They also had salt to trade.
Painted Pueblo pottery
from New Mexico is found across the plains over to Arkansas and up into
Kansas. The Jumano would take these Puebloan goods east to trade with the
Caddo. The Plains Jumano were probably the go betweens between the Caddo
on the East and the Puebloan Jumano on the west.
The arrival of the Apache
about 1525 put an end to much of this trade. The Apache conquered the plains
Jumano and drove them farther and farther south out of the Pan Handle and
out of the northern part of central Texas.
We have to guess about
the Plains Jumanos political organization. The way they are described
makes them sound like they had a band level of organization, not a tribe.
This would mean they had no chiefs. They may have been true tribes, but
we do not know. If you do not know what I am talking about see the "Read Me First" page about tribes and bands. .If
you want to find out for sure then become and archeologist when you grow
up and find out. Be sure to tell the rest of us when you do.
There are also Plains
Jumanos living in the area of west Texas east of the Pecos river in the
region near and in southeastern New Mexico. We know little about them.
They were probably more like the Plains Jumanos than the Pueblo Jumanos.
About all we know is that various Spanish expeditions found them here.
The Jumanos were a complex
group of cultures. They are all gone now. Why they disappeared is one of
the great unanswered questions in Texas history. All that we know about
them indicates they were quite adaptable. Why did they disappear? They
were certainly hurt badly by the Spanish occupation and take over of their
lands. Many died of European diseases. Others were killed fighting off
the Spanish invaders. The Plains Jumano were pushed south and west out
of their territory by the Apache. But none of this explains why such a
large group of Native Americans vanished so quickly. The last records of
them are from the mid 1700s in west Texas.
NEWS FLASH!!! I just got an e-mail from a Jumano Indian!!! They are still
here! Check this out.
"Jose A. Acosta"
From: "Jose A.
Subject: re: Jumano
Date: Thu, 10 Dec 1998
Greetings from West
Texas; My name is Jose A Acosta, or Temach-tiani. I am a descendant of
the Pueblo Jumanos that lived in the region of Presidio/Redford Tx, and
Ojinaga Chih. Mexico, not the El Paso region where Suma (enemies and sometimes
friends) of the Jumanos lived. It was a great pleasure reading your article.
And as you stated, much work is still left to be done. Currently another
relative of ours in the region is helping on archaeological work in Redford
at one of the oldest missions in the USA. The Jumano descendants filed
for federal recognition and Native American status in 1996 and is still
pending at the BIA. We are proud of our heritage, however to say we simply
vanished is not true. The late Dr Charles Kelley always stated that to
see Jumanos, "go to West Texas and Big Bend and look up names like
Acosta, Lujan, Carrasco, Levario, Bustamante, Zubiate, Hernandez, Mendoza,
etc. to see the descendants" We are still here. A good page with limited
info is www.ojinaga.com but a good pic is there of Jumanos. My page has
many good Native Links and is to be found at www.elnuevosiglo.com Currently
the Jumano Tribe as it is known today and the Jumano descendants are putting
our home page together. Watch for it real soon. Also we are staying in
contact with the Cohuiltecan group that also filed for recognition status.
Some say they are extinct also, but one need only look at the people of
South Texas and see the descendants of this group. On file we have records
from Spanish, Texas, and American accounts to prove our ancestory. In one
1750's census, many of the above mentioned names are already showing up
at the missions. Anyway Thanks; Please stay in contact and keep up the
great job....Anything I may help with let me know.
Jose A Acosta
Odessa TX 79762
| Check out some Indian rock
art from the homeland of the Jumano. Here is a link to the Rock
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