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The Great Race logo contains several layers of meaning that illustrate aspects of Lakotan cosmology. From its center a path of stars spirals outward. The spiral is centered on the site of Washun Niya, the cave where Lakotan ancestors emerged onto this earth. The stars represent the belief that every Lakotan receives a spirit from a star at birth, and that the spirit returns to that star when the person dies. The central disk is yellow, the color of Inyan, the first and original Lakotan spirit. This color underlies the entire logo because everything is related to Inyan. The ring around Inyan represents Maka, the being that Inyan created from his blood and shaped into a disk around himself. Her color is green. Continuing outward, the next design element is a thin red ring that represents the racetrack created by the weight and blood of the animals that participated in the great race. This ring is incomplete, thereby recognizing that – according to the narrative by James LaPointe – the race was unexpectedly ended before it was finished. Red is also the color of Wi, the fourth of the highest-level Lakotan spirits. Encircling these elements are two rings of triangles. The inner ring triangles point toward the center, whereas the outer ring triangles point away from the center on the same radials. The bases of the triangles of these two rings are directly opposite each other and spaced slightly apart. They represent stylized feathers and are blue, the color of Shkan, the third Lakotan spirit.

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