Beeteyihí (Storytime)

How Wíṭṭapɨ (Robin) Got His Red Breast

You can listen to How Wíṭṭapɨ Got His Red Breast in English with integrated Miwok words using the controls below.

    How Wíṭṭapɨ Got His Red Breast, a Northern Sierra Miwok story
    A long time ago, the world was dark and cold and the people had no fire. Wíṭṭapɨ (Robin) learned where the fire was and went on a far journey to get it. After he had traveled a great distance, he came to the place and stole it and carried it back to the people. Every night on the way, Wíṭṭapɨ lay with his breast over it to keep it from getting cold; this turned his breast red. Finally he reached home with it and gave fire to the people.
    Then Wíṭṭapɨ made Hi’éema (Sun) out of it, but before doing this he put some into the Úunu (Buckeye) tree so the people could get it when they needed it. From that day to this, all the people have known that when they want fire they can get it by rubbing an Úunu stick against a piece of dry wood; this makes the flame come out.

Tínnɨ’ née’ii útne’? (What is this story?)

This story was told by a Northern Sierra Miwok person to anthropologist C. Hart Merriam, who published it under the title "How Witˊ-tah-bah the Robin got his Red Breast" in the book The Dawn of the World - Myths and Weird Tales Told by the Mewan Indians of California in 1910.

Merriam did not publish the storyteller's name or other information about them except that they told the story somewhere "in the mountains near Mokelumne River". Additionally, Merriam only published an English version of the story with few interspersed Miwok words. Unforunately, it was common practice for anthropologists and linguists to record Native stories in this manner and without these details at the time.

The SSBMI Language Department has retitled this story and adapted it to share at Beeteyihí (Storytime). The audio recordings that you can listen to here are of Language Department staff member Jonathan Geary reciting this story.

You can access a pdf copy of this story, along with supplementary learning prompts, by clicking here.

Hɨ́y’ɨksɨs aa? (Do you know?)

Have you heard any other stories about how the early people got fire? What do they have in common?

This story resembles others told by people throughout Central and Northern California about how the early people obtained fire. Typically, an animal is sent to a far-off land to steal fire, though the animal varies across versions of the story.

For example, Tom Cleanso, a Nisenan man and brother of SSBMI Matriarch Pamela Adams, says that Falcon sent two little mice to steal fire. William Joseph, a.k.a. Bill Joe, a Nisenan speaker from Amador County, says that Field Mouse and Deer went together to steal the fire, while Lizzie Enos, a Nisenan speaker from the Auburn area, says that Hummingbird stole it. In another version of the story told by a Plains Miwok person to C. Hart Merriam, Hummingbird stole the fire and kept it under his chin on the return journey, burning himself.

Crucially, in all versions, the early people obtained fire through the help of their animal relations.