This article is about the tribe. For the fictional actors portraying them, see Puka Michuna performers.
The Puka Michuna tribe is an indigenous group of characters from Jungle Cruise.
Description[]
The Puka Michuna were an Indigenous tribe of the Amazon rainforest who had a connection to magical forces. They lived in a large tree holding a settlement located in, "Headhunter territory" within the Lagrimas de Cristal region of Brazil. The tribe is also historically the caretakers of the Tears of the Moon, a mythical tree which can cure any ailment when it blooms under a Blood moon.
Members[]
- Trader Sam: In 1916, Sam was the Puka Michuna's chieftain.
History[]
Background[]
Losing the Arrowhead of Lukarina[]
In the year 1556, the Puka Michuna found a small group of deathly-ill conquistadors, which consisted of Lope de Aguirre and Francisco Lopez de Heredia. They nursed the Spaniards back to health using the Tears of the Moon. Aguirre, who was searching for the Tears to save his terminally ill daughter, demanded the Puka Michuna Chief to give him the sacred Arrowhead and take him to the Tree of Life, but he refused, deeming the conquistadors unworthy.
In anger, Aguirre stabbed the Chief, fatally wounding him. Francisco betrayed the conquistadors to aid the tribes-people in escaping, resulting in the arrowhead being lost in the jungle. With his last breath, the Chief cursed Aguirre and all of his conquistadors so they could never leave sight of the river again, or the jungle would take them back to it for all eternity. Francisco would seal the other conquistadors away in a cave behind a waterfall and remain allies of the tribe under the name, "Frank Wolff". The secrets behind the Tears of the Moon were however lost with the arrowhead in the jungle.
20th century[]
At some point, the arrowhead was found and taken by British colonial explorer Dr. Albert Falls, representing a misogynistic British society known as the Royal Anthropological and Diverse Adventures Society who kept the arrowhead in London. On the April 8th of 1911, Falls founded the Jungle Navigation Company which employed Frank Wolff as a skipper. As a skipper for the company, Frank perpetuated myths that the Puka Michuna were cannibalistic headhunters and had actors portray them on his charlatanizeid jungle cruise attraction while giving some of the money to the tribe through its new chieftain, Trader Sam.
In 1916, Frank learned of British explorers Lily Houghton and MacGregor Houghton had stolen the Arrowhead of Lukarina to find the Tears of the Moon. Frank conspired with the tribe to kidnap the Brits so that they could find the tree for themselves. However, the tribe and Frank wound up joining forces with the two due to shared enemies with the German Empire whose expedition leader Prince Joachim revived Lope and his conquistadors.
Development history[]
The Puka Michuna are based on the Umbala tribe of North Africa and Trader Sam characters from the original Jungle Cruise attraction. These characters were portrayed them as savage headhunters, cannibals and shrunken-head salesmen which served of caricatures of Africana and Jivaroan peoples. The falsified reputation of the tribe in the film is a reference to this negative legacy.
Appearances[]
Jungle Cruise[]
Other connections[]
Jungle Cruise[]
The map to the tribe's territory of Lagrimas de Cristal is located in the Amazon River Base and boathouse in the Lost Delta, both of which being structures used by the Jungle Navigation Company. Trader Sam and Chief Nah-mee are both characters from the attraction, possibly connected to tribe.
Trivia[]
- It is unknown if the park versions of Trader Sam, Chief Nah-mee or their family have any connection to the tribe.
- When Chief Nah-mee's top-hat was added to the gift-shop of the updated attraction, it was decorated with feathers similar to those used by the Puka Michuna.
- The language of the Puka Michuna is based on the real-world Tupi language of Brazil's Indigenous population.[1]