Mankayia the Winged Storm Horse Returns;

Extensive wind damage in Eastern Iowa, but gifts and visions too...

Mankayia, the storm horse, departs for the sky

“Plains tribes have a long and rich mythology of tornadoes. James Mooney, an early 1800s white ethnologist, recorded stories and drawings from Kiowa and Cheyenne "storm horse" accounts. One very old Kiowa named Iseeo told Mooney of the great winged, god-like medicine horse they called Mankayia, that had a swirling black tail so powerful, it swept up a herd of buffalo into the sky, until they were "wiggling black specks," then trees, rocks and people.”

The sights and sounds of spring are all around us, and just like terrestrial horses, when spring arrives, the great winged storm horses prance among us. On Friday, at least 32 people were killed as storm horses ripped through the midwest and south. At least seven storm horses galloped across eastern Iowa, including an EF-4. The most significant damage occurred Friday when Mankayia stayed on the ground through Wapello, Keokuk, Washington, and portions of Johnson Counties.

Plains legends differ, and names of storm horses might vary. They may be considered either male or female, but most agree that storm horses aren’t malevolent and that any damage they cause is incidental, as we are like mere ants beneath their swirling tails. In fact, storm horses often bring gifts and powerful visions in addition to destruction.

Above is a photograph of Mankayia in eastern Iowa on Friday (courtesy NWS). Notice how he gallops across the fields, missing a nearby town, almost avoiding it on purpose. I wonder what gifts and visions he brought? We know the destruction.

On Saturday, I went to help survey the damage caused in the listening area of our sister station KCII in Washington. Below are just a few of my photos.

This house was near Agency, IA. Two people were injured, but family on scene tells me they will be fine.

This is the “old” house, to the west.

The calf on the left has a limp, and we are lucky Mankayia’s tail spared her, as well as the family at the main house.

The above photo is of a CAFO to the north, totally destroyed.

Mankayia’s tail is so strong these propane tanks from the CAFO were hurled onto a field across the road like toys.

Violet the dog likes to accompany me on these kinds of trips, and we stopped at a cemetery near What Cheer so she could take a break and nose around, seeing and smelling things beyond my perception. My hearing is better than hers though; she’s deaf.

This marker reads, “ON JUNE 7, 1984, THIS CEMETERY WAS HIT BY A TORNADO AND 50% OF THE STONES WERE OVERTURNED.”

The Des Moines Register reports that four people died and 91 were injured on June 7, 1984 in Iowa when a herd of as many as 35 wind horses galloped across the state.

Mankayia and other wind horses have been an important part of our history for millennia, bringing incidental destruction, yet gifts and visions as well.

Today’s forecast suggests we can expect them to return again this afternoon, as these godlike storm horses continue their celebration of spring. Please stay tuned to your local radio and television stations for severe weather reports, where all of us in the broadcast industry will be doing our best to help keep our communities safe.

Seek shelter as advised, and don’t forget to look for the gifts and visions Mankayia will bring.

Check out the new Iowa Podcasters’s Collaborative, as well as work of other Iowa Writers’ Collaborative columnists—they are doing amazing things. If you can afford it, please become a paid subscriber to their work. Here they are in alphabetical order:

Laura Belin: Iowa Politics with Laura Belin, Windsor Heights

Doug Burns: The Iowa Mercury, Carroll

Dave Busiek: Dave Busiek on Media, Des Moines

Art Cullen: Art Cullen’s Notebook, Storm Lake

Suzanna de Baca Dispatches from the Heartland, Huxley

Debra Engle: A Whole New World, Madison County

Julie Gammack: Julie Gammack’s Iowa Potluck, Des Moines and Okoboji

Joe Geha: Fern and Joe, Ames

Jody Gifford: Benign Inspiration, West Des Moines

Beth Hoffman: In the Dirt, Lovilla

Dana James: New Black Iowa, Des Moines

Pat Kinney: View from Cedar Valley, Waterloo

Fern Kupfer: Fern and Joe, Ames

Robert Leonard: Deep Midwest: Politics and Culture, Bussey

Tar Macias: Hola Iowa, Iowa

Kurt Meyer, Showing Up, St. Ansgar

Kyle Munson, Kyle Munson’s Main Street, Des Moines

Jane Nguyen, The Asian Iowan, West Des Moines

John Naughton: My Life, in Color, Des Moines

Chuck Offenburger: Iowa Boy Chuck Offenburger, Jefferson and Des Moines

Barry Piatt: Piatt on Politic Behind the Curtain, Washington, D.C.

Macey Spensley: The Midwest Creative, Iowa

Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Buggy Land, Kalona

Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Emerging Voices, Kalona

Cheryl Tevis: Unfinished Business, Boone County

Ed Tibbetts: Along the Mississippi, Davenport

Teresa Zilk: Talking Good, Des Moines

To receive a weekly roundup of all Iowa Writers’ Collaborative columnists, sign up here (free): ROUNDUP COLUMN

We are proud to have an alliance with Iowa Capital Dispatch.