Spokane Tribe citizen developing fitness app to educate users of Native history ‘beneath our feet’

News story by Matthew Kincanon | FāVS News

A few years ago, Danny Brigman created a virtual run challenge where people would log their miles and identify whose Native lands they were on. However, it was tedious for users, inspiring him to start an app that would automate this process and reach non-Native users.

Homelands is an app Brigman is developing that, according to its GoFundMe page, will automatically sync with users’ smartwatches, upload their workout and use their location data to identify whose lands they were on.

“It is important to me because I feel like these Native movements like land back and specifically land acknowledgement need to meet people where they are,” said Brigman, who is a citizen of the Spokane Tribe. “This app hopes to reach non-Natives and when they upload their run/hike/ride it will tell them whose lands they’re on.”

Brigman said the app will meet users where they are, not requiring extra steps, and help them learn more about the history of the land and Tribes, too.

Excited partners along the journey

He is working on the app and its website with his friend Beau Denison. Denison provides him with support in marketing and other technical aspects.

“I provide my knowledge of social media and built his website so he has more web presence so he can get the word out to the public and hopefully get more supporters,” Denison said.

Aside from Denison, Brigman said he has a few people lined up as beta testers once they reach that step, as well as the app developer he hired, Appsketiers.

“I met with several [developers] and they were the first ones that were as excited about the project as I was,” Brigman said.

Tribal stories and history within the app

In addition to its primary features, Brigman said a premium feature would also bring some historical context of the lands and the Tribes who call it home in the form of a Wikipedia-style page where Tribes’ oral history could be collected into one place.

“Maybe a certain family in the tribe knows a tribal story that another doesn’t. They can add it to the page where other premium users can review and verify,” Brigman said. “This will hopefully compile our oral histories into one location without the need to see if some non-native wrote it down in a book only in a library far away.”

There are several reasons why Brigman believes people should care about whose land they’re on including the failure of education systems when it comes to teaching history before 1492.

“There is so much history beneath our feet. There were complex civilizations. Not only that, but those people are still here,” Brigman said.

Other uses for the app

He described the history of the Tribes is important in many different ways, with one example being how Tribes performed controlled burns in the spring to safely eliminate fuel for wildfires and create healthier forests for other vegetation to grow.

If there’s a specific region struggling to manage their forests and help mitigate wildfire risk, Brigman said they should know whose Native lands they’re on and reach out to that Tribe.

While it may not be as simple of a fix, he said the Tribe will know the area and terrain better than anyone and can help come up with a better solution.

“What I see as important in this app is spreading awareness of Native country, remembering where you are, giving out knowledge of the culture and being able to create an even bigger community around it,” Denison said.

A virtual merch shop will be opening up sometime soon, Denison said. He is working out the technical aspects over the next few weeks. He added he and Brigman will work on a campaign to announce it on the app’s social media pages.

“I hope to reach people who otherwise wouldn’t have stopped to think about whose Native lands they’re on,” Brigman said. “I hope through this app we can also aggregate some of our oral histories to give these land acknowledgements context.”

For Brigman, it’s not about the number of downloads or revenue, but rather reaching a broader audience on behalf of the Native community.