Aurora Over Iowa

[Denny]

[djm]

This is your Iowa on drugs .....

djm

[Denny]

looks like Cynth's party got a little out of hand!

[Walden]

*shudder* This is why I never go up north.

[Rod Sprague]

That looks like it would have been a noisy one. I have this odd ability to sense visual and tactile vibrations and know what they sound like, much as a person can feel an object’s shape without looking at it directly and know what it looks like in their mind. Auroras have hissed, sizzled and boomed for me when I've seen them in motion.

[s1m0n]

My girlfriend, upon seeing this image: "that has got to be the best picture of Iowa ever taken."

[Nanohedron]

That looks like it would have been a noisy one. I have this odd ability to sense visual and tactile vibrations and know what they sound like, much as a person can feel an object’s shape without looking at it directly and know what it looks like in their mind. Auroras have hissed, sizzled and boomed for me when I've seen them in motion.

So you're synesthetic, then?

I was always struck by the silence of aurora displays; their movement suggests that noise ought to be heard (especially something like the snap of a flag in the wind), but, of course, I hear none.

[Walden]

My girlfriend, upon seeing this image: "that has got to be the best picture of Iowa ever taken."

Now for the big question:

Is it pronounced Iowuh or is it Ioway?

[Innocent Bystander]

That's pretty far South for an Aurora, I thought.
(That's based on the story that my Mother saw an Aurora over Belfast, once. )

[Denny]

yep...far south!

Storm headed for Earth

[Cynth]

You know, I heard on the news that people were seeing the Northern Lights that night so I ran outside and looked in all directions but I didn't see anything. My husband said the weatherman said they were appearing and disappearing. I've always wanted to see the Northern Lights, but I guess you have to make more of an effort than I did. Des Moines is only about 50 miles away so probably I could have seen them if I had kept going outside. I think we are quite far south for them, so it is very unusual, especially a display like the one in the photograph.

I have not heard anyone living in Iowa refer to the state as "Ioway". But "Ioway" is a real word.

Question 1: What's the difference between "Iowa" and "Ioway"?
The Iowa Tribe is the same as the Ioway Tribe. Different sources spell them different ways based on differences in historic pronunciation. So whether you need to learn about the Iowa Indians or the Ioways, this is the right place! We will use both spellings here to get you used to that

Question 2: Who are the Iowa or Ioway Indians?
We were the first tribe that inhabited the state of Iowa and parts of surrounding states. We are the reason the state of Iowa got its name. Our ancestors built burial mounds as part of the Woodland Culture. By the year 1000 (about the time of the Dark Ages in Europe) our ancestors had developed a new culture archaeologists call "Oneota". By the year 1650, our ancestors had split up into smaller groups, one of which became known as the Ioway or Iowa Indians. The government evicted the Ioway from our lands in Iowa through a series of treaties in the early 1800s. By 1836 we were relocated on a new reservation in Kansas. That reservation still exists today. In the 1880s, some Ioways moved to Oklahoma, and another reservation is located there. The Iowa are closely related to the Otoe and Missouri Indians.

[Redwolf]

You usually have to be a fair distance from city lights to see auroras well. I never saw them all my years living in Spokane, even though they were often visible just 20 miles or so outside of the city.

We got to see them from our ship when we were on our Alaska cruise...not as spectacular as that one, but exciting all the same!

Redwolf

[SteveShaw]

My house with the aurora over it on October 30 2003. We are just about 50° north!