Jumanos facts for kids
The Jumanos were a group of Native American tribes. They lived in a large area that included parts of western Texas, New Mexico, and northern Mexico. They were especially found near the Junta de los Rios region, which had many settled Native people.
Spanish explorers first wrote about meeting the Jumano in 1581. Later trips by the Spanish found them in many places across the Southwest and the Great Plains. The last time they were mentioned in history was in a story told in the 1800s. However, their numbers had already dropped a lot by the early 1700s.
Most experts believe the Jumanos stopped being a distinct group by 1750. This was due to sickness, the slave trade, and wars. The remaining Jumanos likely joined other tribes like the Apache or Comanche.
The name "Jumano" was spelled in different ways in Spanish papers. Some of these spellings include Jumana, Xumana, Humana, Umana, Xoman, and Sumana.
Who Were the Jumanos?
Spanish records from the 1500s to the 1700s often talk about the Jumano Indians. French explorers also mentioned them in eastern Texas. In the late 1600s, they were known as important traders and leaders in the Southwest.
Today, experts are not sure if the Jumano were one single group of people. It's possible the Spanish used "Jumano" as a general name for several different groups. This is because the records mention people called Jumano across a very large area.
Experts also don't know what language the Jumano spoke. Some ideas include Uto-Aztecan, Tanoan, and Athabascan languages. The Jumano have been described in different ways:
- Farmers who used pottery and lived at La Junta de los Rios.
- Buffalo-hunting Plains Indians who often visited La Junta to trade.
- Or, they might have been both farmers and buffalo hunters.
Gary Anderson, a writer, suggested in 1999 that the Jumano were a mix of different groups from various parts of Texas. He thought they came together to form a new people. This happened because they were trying to escape diseases, Spanish missions, and Spanish slave raids south of the Rio Grande.
Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca might have met the Jumano in 1535. This was near La Junta, where the Conchos River meets the Rio Grande at Presidio, Texas. He wrote about visiting the "people of the cows" in one of their towns. These might have been the settled Indians of La Junta. He said they were "with the best bodies that we saw and the greatest liveliness."
Cabeza de Vaca described their cooking method. They would drop hot stones into gourds to cook their food, instead of using clay pots. This cooking style was common among nomadic people of the Great Plains. For them, heavy pottery was hard to carry. Because of this, some experts think he might have been describing the semi-nomadic Jumano.
The Spanish explorer Antonio de Espejo first used the name Jumano in 1582. He used it for farming people living at La Junta. This area was a busy trading spot and attracted many different tribes, including the Jumano.
The Spanish used other names for groups near La Junta, such as the Cabris, Julimes, Passaguates, Patarabueyes, Amotomancos, Otomacos, Cholomes, Abriaches, and Caguates. A person on Espejo's trip called the buffalo-hunting people they met near the Pecos River in Pecos, Texas "Jumano."
These hunters were known to have close ties with the Indians at La Junta. But it's not clear if they were full-time bison hunters or if they lived part of the year in La Junta. Some experts think the settled people at La Junta were Patarabueye and the bison hunters were Jumano. In this idea, the nomadic Jumano had close ties, and maybe spoke a similar language, with the people of La Junta, but were a separate group. From their home between the Pecos and Concho Rivers in Texas, the Jumano traveled widely. They traded meat and skins to the Patarabueye and other Indians for farm products.
The Spanish called the people connected to the Tompiro pueblo villages of the salinas (salt flats) Humanas or Ximenas. This area was about 50 miles east of the Rio Grande, near the Great Plains. The pueblo later called Gran Quivira was the largest of several Jumano towns. This location allowed them to trade with the buffalo-hunting Indians of the Great Plains. The Jumano also dug up large amounts of salt, which is why the Spanish named the region salinas. They traded salt for farm goods. The people in the Tompiro pueblos are thought to have spoken a Tanoan language. One historian, Dan Flores, suggested that the Jumano linked to the Pueblo villages were the ancestors of the Kiowa, who also speak a Tanoan language. The Tompiro towns were abandoned by 1672. This was probably due to deaths from European diseases, Apache raids, and heavy demands for food and labor from the Spanish.
Experts have also suggested that a fourth group in Texas might have been Jumano. In 1541, Francisco Vázquez de Coronado met a group he called Teyas near the start of the Brazos River. Experts have since thought the Teyas were Apache, Wichita, or Jumano. Some believe they were nomadic relatives of the Pueblo villagers of Gran Quivira and the salines. For the next two centuries, the people who became known as the Wichita were often called Jumano in historical records.
Experts agree that, at the very least, the Jumanos included the nomadic bison-hunting people of the Pecos and Concho River valleys in Texas. Since they were nomads and traders, they were often found far from their homeland. This might explain why the Spanish called many different Indian groups from various cultures and places "Jumano."
Jumano History
In the 1500s, when the Spanish arrived at the Tompiro Pueblos in New Mexico, the Tompiro were trading a lot with the Jumano. Historical records show that Franciscan missionaries, like Juan de Salas, were surprised when Jumanos came to them asking to be baptized. The Jumanos said they had been taught by "a lady in blue," who was believed to be Sister Mary of Jesus of Ágreda.
Experts believe that in 1580, the number of Native Americans, either fully or partly Jumano, living along the Rio Grande and Pecos River was between 20,000 and 30,000. Other groups further east in Texas might also have been identified as Jumano or closely connected to them at this time. Other groups closely linked to the Jumano, and sometimes called Jumano, were the Julimes, Tobosos, and Conchos. These groups lived further south along the Conchos River from where it meets the Rio Grande.
In the late 1600s, the Jumano wanted to form an alliance with the Spanish. They were facing pressure from the Lipan Apache and Mescalero Apache who were moving in from the north. Also, a drought had badly affected their crops and the buffalo herds in their land. The Jumano asked for Christian missions to be built in their territory. They also tried to help the Spanish and other tribes get along. The Spanish visited them in their homeland on the Concho River in 1629, 1650, and 1654. In 1654, the Spanish from the Diego de Guadalajara expedition helped the Jumano in a battle against the Cuitaos (likely the Wichita). After this, they got a lot of bison skins. In the 1680s, the Jumano chief Juan Sabeata was important in building trade and religious ties with the Spanish. Later in the 1600s, the Spanish seemed to lose interest in the Jumano. They focused more on the Caddo people of east Texas. The Caddo were more numerous, and the Spanish were worried because the French were trying to trade with them.
In the early 1700s, the Jumano tried to make an alliance with their old enemies, the Apache. By 1729, the Spanish were calling the two tribes the Apache Jumanos. By 1750, the Jumano had almost disappeared from historical records as a separate people. They seemed to have joined groups of Lipan and Mescalero Apache, Caddo, and Wichita. Many also died from infectious diseases. Others became detribalized when they lived at Spanish missions in Central Texas. If one expert's idea is correct, they might have moved north to the Black Hills region. Then, around 1800, they might have appeared on the southern Plains as the Kiowa.
For a long time, European-American experts thought the Jumano were extinct as a people. However, in the 2000s, some families in Texas have identified themselves as Apache-Jumano. As of 2013, they had 300 members in the United States and are trying to be recognized as a tribe. The tribal leader, Gabriel Carrasco, believed there could be another 3,000 people who would qualify to join.
See also
In Spanish: Jumanos para niños
