[2] Scholars have generally argued that the Jumanos disappeared as a distinct people by 1750 due to infectious disease, the slave trade, and warfare, with remnants absorbed by the Apache or Comanche.

Variant spellings of the name attested in Spanish documents include Jumana, Xumana, Humana, Umana, Xoman, Sumana,[3] Chome, Humano, Juman, Xumano, and Xume.

[6] Cabeza de Vaca may have encountered the Jumano in 1535 near La Junta, the junction of the Conchos River and Rio Grande at Presidio, Texas.

Among the other names the Spanish used for Indian groups near La Junta were the Cabris, Julimes, Passaguates, Patarabueyes, Amotomancos, Otomacos, Cholomes, Abriaches, and Caguates.

From their recognized homeland between the Pecos and Concho Rivers in Texas, the Jumano traveled widely to trade meat and skins to the Patarabueye and other Indians in exchange for agricultural products.

[11] The Spanish identified as Humanas or Ximenas the people associated with the Tompiro Pueblos of the salinas, an area about 50 miles east of the Rio Grande on the border of the Great Plains.

[13] The Tompiro towns were abandoned by 1672, probably due to fatalities from epidemics of introduced European diseases, Apache raids, and burdensome Spanish levies of food and labor.

[15] Scholars agree that, at a minimum, the Jumanos comprised the nomadic bison-hunting people of the Pecos and Concho River valleys of Texas.

[16] In his book The Indian Southwest: 1580-1830: Ethnogenesis and Reinvention (1999), Gary Anderson proposes that the Jumano includes multiple ethnic groups from diverse regions of Texas.

[18] Historical records indicate Franciscan missionaries, including Juan de Salas, were surprised when Jumanos approached them requesting baptism.

[19] Scholars estimate that in 1580, the population of Native Americans, partially or wholly Jumano, living along the Rio Grande and the Pecos River was somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000.

In 1654, the Spanish of the Diego de Guadalajara expedition aided the Jumano in a battle against the Cuitaos (probably the Wichita) and gained a rich harvest of bison skins.

They appeared to have been absorbed by bands of Lipan and Mescalero Apache, Caddo, and Wichita; died of infectious diseases, or become detribalized when living at Spanish missions in Central Texas.