Notetaking Guide:
List the tribes that belong to the culture. (Hint: Use the map to help you.)
Location and Geography: Describe their location in Texas. What region in Texas are they located? Are they sedentary or nomadic?
Shelter: Describe what their shelter looked like. What materials did they use to build their shelter? Was their shelter temporary or permanent?
Food/Diet: Are they hunters and gatherers or farmers? What kind of foods did they eat? What kind of animals did they hunt? What kind of crops did they plant?
Culture/Other Facts: What traditions or customs did they have? What kind of clothing did they wear? Did they have any special skills or items they made? Does their name have a special meaning? List any other special facts you find.
The Tigua were one of many Puebloan groups that lived in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Mexico. In Texas, the Tigua could be found in far west Texas near present day El Paso. These groups of people lived in villages and their homes reminded the Spanish explorers of the multi-storied homes in Spain. They started referring to these people as the “pueblo”, the Spanish word for town. Their homes were made of adobe, mud bricks that are dried in the sun.
The Tigua were farmers and built their villages in valleys, near rivers and streams for a water supply and longer growing season. The Tigua grew corn, beans and squash, as well as cotton from which they wove cloth. The Tigua also grew gourds (melons, cantaloupe, pumpkins) that were dried and hollowed out to use as storage containers along with their pottery. The Tigua hunted deer, antelope, and bear. They also picked berries and fruit, especially the cactus.
Like the Caddo, the Tigua had a matrilineal society. Family roots were traced through the mother’s side. The Tigua are also one of the few groups of Native Texans to be around today. The Tigua can be found on a reservation in the El Paso area and still maintain the traditions of the Tigua.
YSLETA DEL SUR PUEBLO MUSEUM.The Ysleta del Sur Pueblo Museum, fifteen miles southeast of downtown El Paso, is devoted to the history and culture of the Tigua Indians, who first came to the area in October 1680 as refugees from the Pueblo Revolt in New Mexico. The museum opened in 1975 in the historic Alderette-Candelaria House, built around 1840, and is part of the Ysleta del Sur Cultural Center, which also includes shops that sell silver, pottery, and other crafts produced by the Tiguas. In the spring of 1992 the museum was being rebuilt after most of the structure was destroyed by fire.
By: Martin Donell Kohout
TSHA Online
Published: October 1, 1995
Updated: July 31, 2020
The Tigua tribe and the Ysleta Del Sur Mission in the background. Image available on the Internet and included in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107.
Jumano Native Americans. Courtesy of Elsa Socorro Arroyo, Texas Beyond History, and the University of Texas Libraries. Image available on the Internet and included in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107
Notetaking Guide:
List the tribes that belong to the culture. (Hint: Use the map to help you.)
Location and Geography: Describe their location in Texas. What region in Texas are they located? Are they sedentary or nomadic?
Shelter: Describe what their shelter looked like. What materials did they use to build their shelter? Was their shelter temporary or permanent?
Food/Diet: Are they hunters and gatherers or farmers? What kind of foods did they eat? What kind of animals did they hunt? What kind of crops did they plant?
Culture/Other Facts: What traditions or customs did they have? What kind of clothing did they wear? Did they have any special skills or items they made? Does their name have a special meaning? List any other special facts you find.
The Jumano lived in a large area of West Texas. The Jumano lived in large apartment-like villages called pueblos. The pueblos were built around a central plaza. Their homes were made of stone or adobe -- a mixture of ashes, dry grass, dirt, and water that hardens and becomes durable when it dries in the sun. The pueblos were low and square, and some were two stories high. The flat roofs were so strong that whole families could stand on them.
Since the Jumanos depended on streams and rain for their crops, they lived close to rivers. The Jumano were farmers that grew corn, beans, and squash. Both men and women worked in the fields. They also grew cotton and wove cloth blankets. The Jumano made pottery that they used for the storage of food and seeds. They also used pottery and gourds as cooking utensils.
The Jumano did hunt bison and were known for the high quality of their bison hides. Jumano men who hunted bison had to travel through the Davis Mountains to the northern plains. Before horses were used, the hunters had to walk these long distances. They carried the bison hides and meat from the hunt on their backs or hauled them with dog travois. Much of the meat was dried and cut into thin strips of jerky to keep it from spoiling on the journey home.
Other groups of Jumano were nomadic and played an important role as traders between Native American tribes. They traded corn, squash, and beans from the Southeastern tribes with animal skins and meat from the Plains tribes.
Their main trading partners lived along the Rio Grande. Their trading routes followed and linked several river systems, including the Pecos, Canadian, Brazos, and Colorado Rivers. The Jumano painted striped markings on their face. This helped other Native American tribes recognize them as peaceful traders.
A Jumano man in a deerskin robe, by Frank Weir. Image courtesy of Texas Beyond History. Image available on the Internet and included in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107.
A map showing the original homeland of the Jumano Native Americans based on early encounters with Spanish explorers. Image courtesy of Texas Beyond History. Image available on the Internet and included in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107.
The ruins of Quarai Pueblo, a Humanas pueblo in modern-day New Mexico. Image courtesy of Texas Beyond History. Image available on the Internet and included in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107