
Who are the Jumano Indians?
The Jumano Indians were a network of loosely affiliated Puebloan bands of west Texas and Mexico. Their languages are poorly attested, but may have been Kiowa-Tanoan ; there appear to have been several different Jumano languages spoken by bands in different regions. The Jumanos do not exist as a distinct tribe today.
Do the Jumanos still exist today?
The Jumanos do not exist as a distinct tribe today. After colonization they merged into neighboring tribes such as the Apache, Pueblo , and Wichita tribes. Other people of Jumano descent live among Hispanic communities in southwest Texas and northern Mexico.
What are the different spellings of Jumano?
Variant spellings of the name attested in Spanish documents include Jumana, Xumana, Humana, Umana, Xoman, and Sumana. Spanish records from the 16th to the 18th centuries frequently refer to the Jumano Indians, and the French mentioned them as present in areas in eastern Texas, as well.
Why did the Spanish help the Jumano tribe?
In 1654, the Spanish of the Diego de Guadalajara expedition aided the Jumano in a battle against the Cuitaos (probably the Wichita) and gained a rich harvest of bison skins. In the 1680s, the Jumano chief Juan Sabeata was prominent in forging trade and religious ties with the Spanish.

Is the Jumano tribe still alive?
The Jumano Nation is alive and well and is primarily composed of all family blood line. There are other Jumanos in the Ojinaga and Julimes areas and still practice the old traditions of the Jumano Indians.
What was the Jumano tribe known for?
The Jumano were known for their tattooed or painted bodies and as successful bison hunters whose original homelands included areas of the southern Plains and northwestern Edwards Plateau that were frequented by bison herds. This 1994 painting can be seen in Restaurante Lobby's OK in Ojinaga, Mexico.
What did the Jumano tribe believe in?
Early acceptance of Christianity, introduced the Jumanos to the Sacraments of the Holy Catholic Church and the tradition continues in the Christian faith. Rancherias were large complexes where several Jumano families lived. Today in modern times we call the apartments.
What tribe is Jumano?
Jumanos were a tribe or several tribes, who inhabited a large area of western Texas, New Mexico, and northern Mexico, especially near the Junta de los Rios region with its large settled Native indigenous population.
Where are Jumano now?
Like most indigenous people, Jumanos eventually began mixing with other tribes, but, thanks to their perseverant nature, the Jumano culture is alive and well in West Texas–and even across the country–still today.
What did Jumanos eat?
Jumanos along the Rio Grande in west Texas grew beans, corn, squash and gathered mesquite beans, screw beans and prickly pear. They consumed buffalo and cultivated crops after settling on the Brazos River, in addition to eating fish, clams, berries, pecans and prickly pear cactus.
What are some fun facts about the Jumano?
Facts about the Jumano They were a peaceful tribe and covered themselves with tatoos. These Jumanos were nomadic, and wandered along what is known today as the Colorado, the Rio Grande, and the Concho rivers. The Jumanos were good hunters. They hunted wild buffalo.
What type of weapons did the Jumano use?
The Jumanos had a big variety of weapons. Some were hatchets, knives, bows and arrows, spears and many more. When going into battle, they fought with clubs made of rock or hard wood. As shields they used buffalo hides.
Where did the Jumano tribe live?
Although they ranged over much of northern Mexico, New Mexico, and Texas, their most enduring territorial base was in central Texas between the lower Pecos River and the Colorado. The Jumanos were buffalo hunters and traders, and played an active role as middlemen between the Spanish colonies and various Indian tribes.
What does Jumanos mean?
Jumano were traders and hunters and were known to take on the role as middlemen between the Indian tribes and Spanish settlers. The term Jumano came about when Antonio de Espejo used the term to describe those living at La Junta in 1581.
How did the Jumano live?
The Pueblo Jumano lived in adobe villages in the Mountains and Basins region. The Comanche are Plains Indians who were known as expert horseback riders and buffalo hunters. Today some Native Americans live on reservations, while thousands of others live in cities and on farms.
What are some fun facts about the Jumano?
Facts about the Jumano They were a peaceful tribe and covered themselves with tatoos. These Jumanos were nomadic, and wandered along what is known today as the Colorado, the Rio Grande, and the Concho rivers. The Jumanos were good hunters. They hunted wild buffalo.
What did the Jumano tribe make?
The Jumano traded with other groups for things they could not grow or make. They traded foods such as dried corn, squash, and beans for buffalo hides and meat. They also traded for cloth, shells, salt, and other goods.
What was the jumanos lifestyle?
The Jumanos were buffalo hunters and traders, and played an active role as middlemen between the Spanish colonies and various Indian tribes.
What does Jumanos mean?
Jumano were traders and hunters and were known to take on the role as middlemen between the Indian tribes and Spanish settlers. The term Jumano came about when Antonio de Espejo used the term to describe those living at La Junta in 1581.
What language did the Jumanos speak?
There are no substantial records of the Jumanos' language, and their linguistic identity has been the subject of considerable debate. An early scholar believed that they were Caddoans, ancestral to the Wichitas. Others have suggested a Uto-Aztecan or Athabascan affiliation.
What tribes were the Jumanos?
Jumano Indians. Between 1500 and 1700 the name Jumanos was used to identify at least three distinct peoples of the Southwest and South Plains. They include the Tompiro-speaking Pueblo Indians in Salinas, a nomadic trading group based around the Rio Grande and Río Conchos, and the Caddoan-speaking Wichitas along the Arkansas River ...
Why were the Jumanos called naked Indians?
Section 107. Spanish explorers sometimes referred to the Jumanos as "naked" Indians because their breasts and genitalia were not covered. However, both men and women did wear garments and shoes (probably moccasins) of tanned skins.
Why were Jumanos a rayado?
The Jumanos were characterized as a rayado (striped) people because of a distinctive pattern of facial marking in horizontal lines or bars. The medium may have been tattooing or some combination of scarification and paint.
Where did Juan de O'ate get his oath of loyalty?
In 1598, Juan de Oñate received oaths of loyalty from caciques of three Jumano villages of Genobey, Pataoece, and Cueloce, located in the second geographical focus, Tompiro Province, adjacent to the Salinas of New Mexico.
Where did the Jumano trade originate?
Evidence of trade from the Tompiro region of New Mexico may be seen in the large quantities of potsherds, of local types such as Chupadero black-on-white, found over a wide region of the South Plains.
What is the name of the pueblo of the humanas?
The two smaller pueblos may soon have been evacuated and the Jumano population consolidated at the larger pueblo of Cueloce, which came to be called "the pueblo of the Humanas" or simply "Las Humanas" (now the Gran Quivira ruins).
Where did the Jumano tribe move?
As previously stated, Fray Juan de Salas, earlier in the century, found the Jumano on the prairies about 112 leagues eastward from the Rio Grande. But distances given by the early Spanish travelers must be regarded as only approximate, and there is no reason for believing that the tribe had moved farther away simply because Captains Martin and Castillo, in 1650, are said to have found the Jumano on the Nueces 200 leagues from Santa Fe. They may have been in practically the same spot during this quarter century.
Who first visited the Jumano?
The Jumano were first visited by Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca and his three companions of the ill-fated Narvaez expedition, while making their marvelous journey across Texas and Chihuahua in 1535.
Why did the Jumano visit Salas?
Through their affection for Salas, the founder of the mission of Isleta, the Jumano went year after year for some six years prior to 1629 to visit him at that Rio Grande mission station in the hope, they asserted, that he might come to live among them.
What caused the disruption between the French and the Jumano?
The cause of the disruption between the French and the northern Jumano in 1700 does not appear, but the breach seems to have been healed by 1719, in which year Governor Antonio Valverde y Cossio led an expedition northward and northeastward from Santa Fe against the Ute and Comanche. On a stream called Rio Napestle (probably the present main Arkansas river), the Governor met the Apache of Quartelejo (i. e. the Jicarillas), and found men with gunshot wounds “received from the French and their allies, the Pananas [Pawnees] and Jumanas. ” Here 31 again we have definite evidence that a branch of the Jumano was still in the north during the first quarter of the eighteenth century. It should be noted also that the Jumano here mentioned were allies of the Pawnee.
What was the history of New Mexico between Benavides and the Pueblo rebellion of 1680?
The history of New Mexico between Benavides’ time and the great Pueblo rebellion of 1680 is meager indeed, consequently of the shiftings of the Jumano, if any there were during that period, little is known. In 1650 they were evidently still on the plains, for, according to Posadas , Captain Hernan Martin and Diego de Castillo in that year went with some soldiers and Christian Indians 200 leagues from Santa F6 to the “Rio Nueces” where the Jumano were again found. They remained in the region more than six months, going southeastward down the river for 50 leagues, visiting the Cuitoas, Escanjaques, and Aijaos, and finally the Tejas. During their journey the party traversed, from north to south, a distance of 250 leagues, or, according to Posadas, from the latitude of Santa Fe in 37 to that of the Tejas in 28. It should here be noted that the Escanjaques have always been identified with the Kansas or Kaw Indians, and such may be the case. The Cuitoas, the Tejas (Texas or Hasinai), and the Aijaos, however, were Texan tribes, and indeed the last, as later will be seen, are identifiable with no other than the Tawehash, the name of the southern branch of the Wichita, sometimes applied to the entire Wichita group, as well as to the Wichita proper. This point should be borne in mind, as the Jumano and the Aijaos are here mentioned as if two distinct tribes.
Where did the Cuartelejo come from?
the buffalo plains], and fortified themselves in a place which afterward was for this reason called the Cuartelejo. And they were in it until Don Juan de Archuleta [in 1652?], by order of the Governor, went with 20 soldiers and a party of auxiliary Indians and brought them back to their pueblo. He found in the possession of these revolted Taos, casques and other pieces of copper and tin; and when he asked them whence they had acquired these, they replied ‘from the Quivira pueblos, ’ to which they had journeyed from the Cuartelejo. . . . From Cuartelejo in that direction one goes to the Pananas [Pawnees]; and today it is seen with certainty that there are no other pueblos besides the said [Panana] ones, with which the French were by then already trading. Besides this in all the pueblos which the English and French have discovered, from the Jumano to the north or northeast, we do not know any to have been found of the advancement and riches which used to be imagined of the Gran Quivira.” 17
When did Jumano live in New Mexico?
But we have definite knowledge that the Jumano lived in the present New Mexico at least as early as the time of Onate, i. e. in 1598, for on October 6 of that year he departed with the father commissary “to the salinas of the Pecos, which are of many leagues of indefinite salt, very beautiful and white; and to the pueblos of the Xumases or Rayados, which are three: one very large, and they saw the others.” 6