Iktomi

The Trickster Spider Spirit

Domain: Cunning, Deceit & Wisdom
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Element: Darkness
Relics of Power: Web of Snares

Speak with Iktomi

The full Codex

5 sections of this entry are open to everyone: the summary, the people, the symbols, the lineage and the sources. The other 9 (Name and epithets, In the ancient sources, The myths, Worship and archaeology, How the god was depicted, What scholars debate, After antiquity, Did you know?, Codex relic) are part of the full Codex: PRO opens the whole study of all 500 deities, and without a subscription you can read one full entry a day, just like in the app.

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The People

People

Native American peoples

Region

North America

Period

pre-colonial – present

These spirits and deities were worshipped by the many Native peoples of North America, from the Lakota to the Navajo and Iroquois. Their beliefs bind humans to the Great Spirit, to totem animals, and to balance with the land. Passed down orally, they survive in the Indigenous nations that endured colonization.

The Sun Dance gathered the Plains nations in fasting and sacrifice around the sacred tree. The Hopi dance with the kachinas, masked spirits of the rains, and the sacred pipe seals prayers and treaties — ceremonies still alive in today's nations.

At a glance

Iktomi (variously rendered in ethnolinguistic sources as Unktomi, Iŋktómi, or affectionately as Ikto) is the supreme trickster, cultural educator, and cosmic fool in the oral mythology and sacred traditions of the Lakota and Dakota (Sioux) nations. According to esoteric priestly traditions preserved by Oglala elders and recorded by ethnographer James R. Walker, Iktomi was originally created as Ksa, the primordial personification of Wisdom, born at the inception of the universe as the first offspring of Íŋyaŋ (the Primeval Rock) and Wakíŋyaŋ (the Winged Thunder Being). In that early era, Ksa instructed the first humans in language, the naming of elements, the calculation of seasonal cycles, and the invention of tools. However, corrupted by egotistical pride and encouraged by the demon Gnaski and the monster Iya, Ksa orchestrated a palace intrigue among the celestial powers that humiliated Wi (the Sun) and shamed Haŋwí (the Moon). Convening a solemn cosmic tribunal, the great arbiter Škaŋ (the Sky) stripped him of his wisdom and high title, naming him Iktomi ('Spider') and condemning him to wander the earth as a wandering weaver of deceit whose selfish schemes inevitably collapse upon himself. In tribal folklore (ohúŋkakaŋ) preserved by native writers like Zitkala-Ša and Marie L. McLaughlin, Iktomi roams the Great Plains in fringed buckskin with brilliantly painted face paint, starring in humorous and cautionary parables of greed, gluttony, and folly.

6 min read · Reviewed on September 29, 2026 · How we research

Sacred symbols

The spider, the web, the disguise and the sharp tongue

Family

Parents

Íŋyaŋ (The Primordial Cosmic Rock, first existent being in Lakota cosmogony)Wakíŋyaŋ (The Winged Thunder Being, associated with the primeval mystery of creation)

Iktomi

Genealogy according to J. R. Walker, The Sun Dance of the Teton Dakota (1917) e Lakota Myth (1983); Zitkala-Sa (1901); M. L. McLaughlin (1916); S. R. Riggs (1893)

Sources and further reading

Primary sources

Zitkala-Ša (Bonnin, Gertrude), Old Indian Legends: Retold by Zitkala-Sa. translation: Ginn & Company, Boston, 1901. read
Walker, James R., The Sun Dance of the Teton Dakota (AMNH Anthropological Papers XVI). translation: American Museum of Natural History, New York, 1917. read
McLaughlin, Marie L., Myths and Legends of the Sioux. translation: Bismarck Tribune Company, Bismarck, 1916. read

Studies

Riggs, Stephen Return, Dakota Texts and Grammar (CNAE Vol. IX). Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 1893. open
Internet Sacred Text Archive, Plains Indigenous Traditions and Lore. Evinity Publishing / Sacred Texts Archive, 2024. open

Name and epithets

The theonym Iktomi belongs to the Siouan linguistic family (manifesting dialectally as Unktomi in Dakota and Iŋktómi in Lakota) and literally denotes the spider as well as the spider trickster spirit.

In the ancient sources

Old Indian Legends, 1901 CE. Classic collection authored by Yankton Dakota intellectual Zitkala-Ša (Gertrude Bonnin), rendering authentic native oral traditions of Iktomi's comic and moral trials.

The myths

The Fall of Ksa and the Shame of the Moon. In the cosmological revelations recorded by James R. Walker, Ksa was the second sacred power generated in the cosmos, distinguished by lustrous hair and piercing discernment.

Worship and archaeology

Iktomi receives no sacred altars, sacrificial buffalo robes, or reverent supplications in the solemn ritual cycles such as the Sun Dance (Wiwáŋyaŋg Wačhípi), as Lakota theology does not view him as a benevolent protecti…

How the god was depicted

In native art and descriptive tradition, Iktomi is depicted either as a large spider or as an anthropomorphic figure with spindly, spider-like limbs. He wears fringed buckskin leggings and finely beaded moccasins.

What scholars debate

. The figure of Iktomi occupies a central place in the anthropology of religion and trickster studies. Scholars such as Paul Radin, Claude Lévi-Strauss, and Elaine Jahner argue that Iktomi does not represent a simplisti…

After antiquity

Zitkala-Ša's 1901 publication of Old Indian Legends represented a major milestone in American Indian literature, establishing Iktomi within the canon of American folklore.

Did you know?

In Lakota esoteric tradition, Iktomi is credited with having created human speech and the first words. A famous nineteenth-century prophetic vision maintained that Iktomi had foretold the coming of the white settlers th…

Codex relic

Web of Snares. The invisible web with which Iktomi weaves intrigue, ensnaring gods and mortals in his schemes.

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