The Jumanos: Hunters and Traders of the South Plains [Paperback]

Nancy Parrott Hickerson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1994 | ISBN-10: 0292730845 | ISBN-13: 978-0292730847 | Edition: 1

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 disagreements: 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.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In the 16th and 17th centuries, Spanish explorers of the Southwest recounted experiences with natives they called Jumanos. Linguistic anthropologist Hickerson (Texas Tech Univ.) has analyzed historical sources and archaeological data to investigate whether the Jumanos were a distinctive group or whether the name was simply applied loosely to various groups of tribes. The author summarizes Colonial source materials for the reader and constructs a Jumano chronology to support her theory that they were a discrete people who died out in the 1700s. Well written but dry and academic, this is not for the casual reader. Recommended for academic libraries or Southwestern collections only.
Gwen Gregory, U.S. Courts Lib., Phoenix
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

This important book accomplishes many things.... It will reshape perceptions of the history of the Southern Plains and the Spanish borderlands. The Jumanos have been the subject of complete misunderstanding by anthropologists, ethnologists, and historians alike, and Hickerson has gone a great distance to clarify just who the Jumanos were, what happened to them, and why they were important.... The Jumanos is excellent ethnohistory. (Journal of American History )

Product Details

• Paperback: 298 pages
• Publisher: University of Texas Press; 1 edition (1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0292730845
• ISBN-13: 978-0292730847
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,761,369 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A bit of interesting obscuria, July 30, 2001

By 

Smallchief - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Jumanos: Hunters and Traders of the South Plains (Paperback)

I doubt that even the doting author thought this book would make the best seller lists. The Jumanos, for the 99.9 percent of readers who have never heard of them, were a tribe of Texas Indians who lived on the Rio Grande and Pecos Rivers. By 1700 they had pretty much disappeared. So shadowy are they that some authors have even doubted their existence as a tribe. I got interested in the southwestern Indians and kept running into references to the Jumanos, so I read this book -- the only one that's every been written on the Jumanos, I would guess. If you -- like me -- enjoy truly obscure Americana -- especially southwestern Americana -- you might like reading this. The writing is professorial, but the author constructs the history of a vanished people and their contacts with early Spanish and French explorers. She makes a persuasive case that the Jumanos were a Tanoan people, related to many of the Pueblo Indians. Previous writers had considered the Jumanos as Uto-Aztecan, Caddoan, or Athabaskan. If you comprehend those last two sentences, you might like this book.

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book about this mysterious Southwest Native American Tribe, September 28, 2011

By 

historyone (Republic of Texas, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Jumanos: Hunters and Traders of the South Plains (Paperback)

THis is an outstanding and detailed book about the Jumanos, a Texas tribe with almost prehsitoric history that disappeared in the 1800's. The author gives a detailed synopsis about the Jumanos trading with other tribes, encounters with Spanish explorers and their mysterious way of life. A very detailed scholoarly accounting, this book is not for the casual reader. The reader makes the conclusion that the Jumanos are probably the forebearers of the Kiowa Tribe and possibly other tribes of the Southwest and South Plain Indans. It is a scholarly book that is well written and interesting. Highly recommended for those readers who want an interesting synopsis about this "extinct" tribe that lived in Texas and Oklahoma.