 Brothers Whare and Tapuae, grandsons of Mahuta and the leaders of Ngāti Mahuta, lived there.After the two brothers were killed, Tapuae's son Te Putu built Taupiri pā on the summit of a spur of Taupiri mountain, in the 1600s.When Te Putu was an old man in the 1700s, he was treacherously killed by Ngātokowaru of Ngāti Raukawa at Te Mata-o-tutonga, his home outside the pā by the banks of the Waikato River.