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Overview

In Haka Kaina, the chief of Wahkalu abducts Hwipajusi’s three daughters. Their father’s first rescuers are killed by flying fragments from a struck block of flint. A second party discovers that the seemingly vigilant guard Hohwitina whistles while asleep, unties the girls from his body and returns them home. Subsequent attempts to recapture them escalate into war; two mouse-like helpers secretly destroy many of the defenders’ bowstrings, enabling Haka Kaina’s victory.

The victorious army travels home laden with plunder and carrying the daughters away again. At Wamarawi, the sisters of two Mini Auna brothers see the approaching host while husking acorns and fear an attack. The brothers climb onto their sweat-house and throw fire in every direction around the army. The encircled force burns, including the three captive daughters. Two messengers dispatched just beforehand escape to report the disaster.

The bereaved women of Wahkalu bring shells and otter-skins to the brothers and ask them to restore their husbands. Once the brothers agree, the visiting women and their two sisters gather all the bones into a large spring. Everyone must stay away until daylight. The brothers close their house and remain awake; voices emerge at dawn, and the army returns alive with its clothing and plunder. Hwipajusi’s daughters also return.

Haka Kaina gives the brothers further gifts, calls them cousins and takes his company home to a welcoming celebration. The ending restores the burned captives but leaves them with their abductor; it does not report the revival of their father and his earlier defeated community. Those limits matter: the spring’s restoration is not a general reversal of all the violence in the story.

Army encircled by thrown fireBereaved women negotiate restorationBones collected in a springNightlong exclusion before revival
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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 Haka Kaina, pp. 373–385, read through the homecoming feast. Curtin leaves most animal identities uncertain in this chapter; no species is assigned to the Mini Auna brothers here.

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

    Haka Kaina, pp. 373–385; Yana section statement p. 281 and collection provenance pp. 486–487.

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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