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The Cultures Along the Rio Grande
In 1530, Cabeza de Vaca and his companions became the first Spaniards to visit "La Junta de los Rios" – the region along the Rio Grande river, near where Presidio is today. Cabeza de Vaca, and later the Espejo expedition, described five farming villages, made up of about 10,000 Jumano people. Even though the Jumano lived in separate villages and pueblos, they were very similar in how they lived.
When there was enough rainfall, the men worked in the fields and grew corn, beans, squash, and probably cotton. At times of drought, they lived on wild foods, including mesquite and tornillo beans, which were ground into flour, agave bulbs, and prickly pear and pitahaya cactus. They probably traded with the Jumanos to get dried meat and buffalo hides.
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