Suma people

The Suma People (also Zuma and Zumana) lived in northern Chihuahua and the Rio Grande valley of western Texas. They were nomadic hunter gatherers who practiced little or no agriculture. The Suma are extinct as a distinct people, Their descendants are the Mestizo Population of much of Northern Chihuahua as well as some Apaches who can trace their ancestry to Sumas that assimilated into the Apache people.

Identity and livelihood

Confusion is rife concerning the complex mix of indigenous peoples who lived near the Rio Grande in west Texas. They are often collectively called Jumanos, a name which probably should only be applied to the Plains Indians who lived in the Pecos River and Concho River valleys of Texas but traveled to and traded with the people in the Rio Grande Valley. Near La Junta de los Rios, the junction of the Rio Grande and the Rio Conchos, were a large number of farming villages whose inhabitants were given more than a dozen names by the Spanish. It is unclear whether the La Junta Indians belonged to a single ethnic group and spoke the same language or were instead a mixture of languages and peoples. Also unclear is whether they were related to the more nomadic Jumano.