Fitness trainers will tell you motivation is one of the hardest hurdles to overcome in a workout regime. To provide inspiration and get people walking, the Chickasaw Nation developed the AYA Walk application. As users reach walking milestones, 15 virtual Chickasaw walking partners drawn from both history and fiction share stories of the tribe’s history, culture and language.
“History, culture and storytelling are embedded in the app in various ways. The main contributor to these elements is found in the walking partner character episodes,” Wyas Parker, AYA online content strategist, said.
Using technology already available on a smartphone, AYA, which means “to go” in Chickasaw, is a one-of-a-kind step tracker developed by the Chickasaw Nation. The app unlocks Chickasaw stories and historical accounts as users walk. Along with these characters unlocking stories about Chickasaw history, AYA allows participants to compete in step challenges with other users.
AYA has found a way to incorporate physical activity with Chickasaw storytelling, allowing for attainable fitness goals and personal challenges to be completed. Virtual characters in the app include Chickasaw Hall of Fame inductees, Chickasaws living in the Mississippi Homeland pre-Removal, cattlemen who settled in the Chickasaws’ new home and lawmen who protect the Chickasaw people.
“History, culture and storytelling are embedded in the app in various ways. The main contributor to these elements is found in the walking partner character episodes. Each episode is unlocked when the user walks so many steps, and once unlocked, the user can read and/or listen to these episodes,” Parker said. “In order to learn more, and find out what happens next, the user must put in more steps and therefore increase or maintain their daily physical activity levels.”
Chickasaw Hall of Fame characters, which are a combination of historical and contemporary Chickasaw figures, include Chickasaw Nation Governor Douglas H. Johnston, retired U.S. naval aviator and former astronaut John Herrington, famed Chickasaw storyteller Te Ata and pre-Removal Chickasaw leader Piominko.
The Homeland journey characters include fictional walking partners: Chickasaw elder Akanowa, warrior Hikatubby, 12-year-old Eliza, and Solomon the farmer and his wife Mah Wah Ta. Their journey follows the path from Tishomingo, Oklahoma, to Pontotoc, Mississippi, a town within the Homeland.
“The fictional characters were chosen to help tell the history and culture of the Chickasaw Nation throughout various periods of history, like our Removal to Indian Territory,” Parker said.
The cattlemen characters are from the time period before Oklahoma statehood when the state was known as Indian Territory. Their journeys include herding cattle, caring for a homestead, recovering stolen horses, reconnection with Chickasaw heritage and protecting Chickasaw citizens.
“Some characters, like those in the Cattlemen Series, were chosen to coincide with or to be companion pieces to other Chickasaw produced (pieces) by Chickasaw Nation multimedia, such as the film ‘Montford: The Chickasaw Rancher,’” Parker said.
The lawmen are fictional characters who span multiple generations. They tell their stories about keeping the Chickasaw Nation safe. These characters include present-day Chickasaw Lighthorse Police Officer Talowa; Emet T. Walker, who allows AYA participants to see documents of himself and his family; and Benjamin “Ben” Walker, who, like his grandfather, patrolled the Chickasaw Nation.
Along each journey, walkers “stumble upon” historical items. These items will be collected in the user’s profile and offer witty encouragement boosts to motivate them in their journey to improve health.
For additional encouragement, AYA allows users to create their own group or join in an existing group in their region. Groups can challenge other teams to a walk-off. Group pages show member activity, the leaderboard and current challenges.
“AYA utilizes many different approaches to encourage more walking from our users, such as having each episode attainable only after walking so many steps. AYA also encourages motivation for more walking by utilizing community and friendly competition,” Parker said.
“By joining groups with others, such as friends, family members, co-workers, etc., AYA users can keep each other accountable, see where each is located on their walking partner journey, and in the case of group competitions, see who can get the most steps. Each element is designed simply to get users to walk more and increase their physical activity levels over a sustained period,” Parker said.
The leaderboard feature of AYA shows who among your group has the most steps. The leaderboard has nine levels of steps to walk into: Mouse, Fox, Bobcat, Wolf, Horse, Black Bear, Grizzly Bear and Eagle. This good-natured competition is a motivator to stay at the top of the group’s leaderboard.
For more information or to download the app, visit AYAwalk.com.