The Linguistic Position of Jumano

Jumano is a frequent designation in Spanish and French historical sources dealing with the aboriginal inhabitants of northern Mexico, New Mexico, and Texas, between the late sixteenth and the mid-eighteenth centuries. There is little agreement about the identity of the Jumano; among the several linguistic affiliations proposed are Uto-Aztecan (Sauer 1934) and Athapaskan (Forbes 1959). One widely accepted position (Scholes and Mera 1940) maintains that the term was simply a general designation for Indians who were rayados – i.e. who practiced facial painting or tattooing. Thise paper reviews the historical division of the Tiwan subfamily of Tanoan, probably most closely affiliated with Piro. The ubiquity of references to the Jumano is explained by the active involvement of segment of this population in interareal trade.