Wi, the sun, is recorded in the Walker ethnographic system as one of the four Superior gods forming the foundation of Lakota cosmology alongside Skan, Maka and Inyan, and stands as the deity most directly honoured through the sun dance, wiwanyang wacipi, the central annual ceremony of Lakota religious life and one of the most significant communal rites across the Plains Indian world more broadly.
The sun dance, traditionally held around the summer solstice, involves days of preparation, fasting, prayer and, in its most demanding traditional form, physical sacrifice by pledged dancers who gaze at the sun while dancing around a sacred pole, an act of communal and personal renewal, thanksgiving and prayer for the wellbeing of the people that has continued, in modified and in some communities restored traditional forms, into the present day despite a long period during which United States federal policy actively banned the ceremony. Wi's honour through this demanding rite reflects a broader pattern in Lakota religious thought in which the sun's life-giving power is met with reciprocal sacrifice and endurance from the community, rather than approached through petition alone.