Pulekukwerek, whose name marks him as the 'sharp one from downstream,' is the Yurok monster-slayer and orderer of the world. Traveling through the country, he destroyed or subdued the dangerous beings that menaced the coming human race and fixed customs and observances people were to keep, among them usages surrounding death and the ritual use of tobacco. He is regularly paired with Wohpekumeu, the two representing complementary aspects of the woge's ordering of existence: Wohpekumeu the appetitive fashioner, Pulekukwerek the austere regulator.