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.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
- Preface
- Introduction
- Part One. Jumano Chronology, 1535-1610: First Encounters: Indians and Conquistadors
- 1. The Travels of Cabeza de Vaca
- 2. Explorations by Way of the Western Corridor
- 3. Opening the Central Corridor
- 4. The Illegal Entrada of Castañ o de Sosa
- 5. Juan de Oñ ate and the Conquest of New Mexico
- 6. The Jumanos at the Dawn of History
- Part Two. Jumano Chronology, 1610-1685: Franciscans and Indians in New Mexico
- 7. New Mexico in the 1620's
- 8. Fray Juan de Salas' Mission to the Jumanos
- 9. The Jumanos at Mid-Century
- 10. The Pueblo Rebellion of 1680 and Its Aftermath
- 11. The Expedition to the Rio de las Nueces
- 12. Alonso de Posada's Report: The Jumano World in 1685
- Part Three. Jumano Chronology, 1685-1700: The Decline and Fall of the Jumano Trade Empire
- 13. La Salle's Colony: The French Connection
- 14. Approaches from Coahuila
- 15. The View from Parral
- 16. Fin de Siè cle: The Jumano Diaspora
- Part Four. Continuity and Change in Jumano Culture
- 17. The Jumano Identity Crisis
- 18. The Trade Network
- 19. From History to Prehistory
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index