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Overview

Pun Miaupa, son of Pul Miauna, leaves home after quarrelling with his father and visits his mother’s brother, Igupa Topa. The uncle insists on accompanying him north to seek Wakara’s daughter Halai Auna. Although he repeatedly stumbles and appears painfully old, he outjumps the nephew across mountains. His frailty is therefore not a reliable measure of his power. Before the nephew meets the girl, Igupa Topa enters his heart so that only one person remains visible.

Wakara takes the suitor to his brother Tuina, who has killed previous candidates with powerful tobacco made from parts of his own body. Pun Miaupa survives five successive kinds because the uncle inside him is doing the smoking. Tuina suspects the source of the resistance; his suspicion is confirmed when Igupa Topa emerges and sits independently in the house. The uncle refuses food publicly but eats the stored roots and acorn bread at night, leaving the venison untouched.

When the household complains, Igupa Topa brings a cold deluge. He shelters his nephew and Halai Auna near the roof while the other inhabitants drown, then restores them by calling them to rise. The bride’s fear and grief are part of this episode; his protection of the couple does not make his treatment of everyone else gentle.

Back at Wakara’s home, the uncle again enters the nephew’s heart and supplies the strength to endure a trial on a flexible deer-sinew pole. Pun Miaupa finally launches the hostile father-in-law into the sky, establishing his waxing, waning and renewal as moon. The couple and uncle return to the young man’s father. Curtin speculates about Igupa Topa’s name in a note, but this profile does not turn that speculation into an established natural identity.

Extreme jumps despite apparent frailtyUncle enters nephew’s heartLethal tobacco overcomeDeluge followed by revivalStrength shared in pole contest
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Origins & earliest records

Jeremiah Curtin, Creation Myths of Primitive America in Relation to the Religious History and Mental Development of Mankind (Boston: Little, Brown,1898). Collection notes486–487 distinguish the first nine narratives as Wintu and the later thirteen as Yana. Curtin describes California collecting in1895 and prior publication of these narratives in The Sun. The Yana section begins at281; these selected chapters do not name individual tellers.

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Records & interpretation

Complete The Winning of Halai Auna at the House of Tuina,281–294 read through its final episode; relevant personage lists and collector notes520–521 checked. No independent Indigenous-language transcript is claimed.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

  1. 01

    Creation Myths of Primitive America

    Jeremiah Curtin, collector and English presenter; individual Yana teller unnamed here · 1898

    The Winning of Halai Auna at the House of Tuina,281–294; Yana section statement281 and collection provenance486–487.

Family & connections

A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

  1. Primary textCurtin1898 digitised primary collectionResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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