Íŋyaŋ, the Rock, is the primordial of Lakota cosmology and the first of the four Superior Gods (Wakáŋ Aŋkáŋtu) who together comprise Wakȟáŋ Tȟáŋka. Alone in the original darkness, holding all power in his blue blood, he sacrificed himself to create — opening his veins to form Maká the Earth and the waters, and in doing so shrank and hardened into the rock and stone of the world. From his line come Iktómi the trickster and the Winged One Wakíŋyaŋ. He is invoked in stone, and the sweat-lodge stones (Tȟuŋkáŋ) carry his ancient power.