Manso Indians

The Manso Indians are an indigenous people who lived along the Rio Grande, near Las Cruces, New Mexico, from the 16th to the 17th century, and were the one of the groups settled at the Guadalupe Mission in what is now Cd. Juarez, Mexico. Some of their descendants remain in the area to this day.

The Mansos were semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers who practiced little if any agriculture although farming Indians lived both upstream and downstream from them. They had a life style similar to the Suma and Concho Indians who lived nearby.

Only a few words of their language were recorded. Various theories have been put forth concerning the relationship of their language, including that they spoke a Uto-Aztecan,Tanoan, or Athabaskan (Apache) language. The scant facts about their language indicate that they spoke the same language as the Jano and Jocome peoples who lived to their west. The evidence that exists indicates they spoke a Uto-Aztecan language related to the Cahitan languages of northwestern Mexico.

The first account of the Mansos is from the expedition of Spanish explorer Antonio de Espejo in January 1583. Traveling up the Rio Grande in search of the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico, Espejo encountered a people he called Tampachoas below El Paso. "We found a great number of people living near some lagoons through the midst of which the Rio del Norte [Rio Grande] flows. These people, who must have numbered more than a thousand men and women, and who were settled in their rancherias and grass hunts, came out to receive us…Each one brought us his present of mesquite bean…fish of many kinds, which are very plentiful in these lagoons, and other kinds of food…During the three days and nights we were there they continually performed …dances in their fashion, as well as after the manner of the Mexicans."

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