data length vs index length ??

[Michael Gale]

Hello,

Currently I have a large mysql table (36 million rows) and according to
the mysql-admin the data length is 6.5GB and my index length is 8.8GB. 

I am new to mysql, but I would assume that my index should not consume
more space then my data ?

But in order to provide the data in a timely manner I do not believe I
can remove any of my indexes as there were all added as a result of a
query taking 30-40 minutes.

Michael