The Jumanos: Hunters and Traders of the South Plains

by Nancy Parrott Hickerson

In the late sixteenth century, Spanish explorers described encounters with North American people they called "Jumanos." Although widespread contact with Jumanos is evident in accounts of exploration and colonization in New Mexico, Texas, and adjacent regions, their scattered distribution and scant documentation have led to long-standing was "Jumano" simply a generic name loosely applied to a number of tribes, or were they an authentic, vanished people? In the first full-length study of the Jumanos, anthropologist Nancy Hickerson proposes that they were indeed a distinctive tribe, their wide travel pattern linked over well-established itineraries. Drawing on extensive primary sources, Hickerson also explores their crucial role as traders in a network extending from the Rio Grande to the Caddoan tribes' confederacies of East Texas and Oklahoma. Hickerson further concludes that the Jumanos eventually became agents for the Spanish colonies, drafted as mercenary fighters and intelligence-gatherers. Her findings reinterpret the cultural history of the South Plains region, bridging numerous gaps in the area's comprehensive history and in the chronicle of these elusive people.

298 pages, Paperback

First published November 30, 1993

Reviews

[Roy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A singularly informative book and very well written. The Jumanos is essential reading for those interested in early Spanish period native Texas and those who study the Pueblos of the Upper Rio Grande, and anyone who constantly sees references to the mysterious Jumanos in the literature of Coahuila, Nueva Vizcaya, and Arizona.

Parrott Hickerson is a linguist and firmly ties the Jumanos to the Tanoan (Tigua/Tewa) pueblos and makes much of Early Texas history much more coherent with her detailed chronological account. Her brief chapter on the nature of Jumano trade is a must read, and her conclusion, her final synthesis, should pretty much be required reading for those studying early Texas history.

But most of all it is written in a very clear and engaging style. One issue is that this presupposes a certain amount of knowledge but anyone who knows enough to have even heard of the Jumano will profit.