[MUSIC PLAYING]
DALENE REDHORSE: To the east is Ute Mountain.
To the West is Monument Valley.
All areas have Navajo names.
All the meadows have names, all the rocks,
but we don't have street names.
NORBERT NEZ: The Navo Nation is over 27,000 square miles.
It covers three states--
Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah.
The Navo Nation currently doesn't
have a lot of street addresses.
DALENE REDHORSE: It's like past this rock, or the Y in a road.
That's how we-- the right people, just using landmarks
and guessing on mileage.
SUSAN HENDY: We will ask dispatch
to ask them that, if they see us,
they start honking their horn, or have the family members come
out and meet us on the road, take us into the house.
That saves us a lot of time.
DOUG RINCKES: So about six years ago, I was working on a project
to detect new roads that we didn't have in our maps.
We have great imagery from satellites.
So adding these towns to our maps from the GPS
coordinates just seemed like a really easy thing to do.
NORBERT NEZ: I was attending a Google conference.
One of the presentations was plus codes.
DOUG RINCKES: I was talking about working in Kolkata
to assign plus codes in the city so that people have
an address that they can use to get bank accounts
and access to benefits.
NORBERT NEZ: Instantly we knew, this is it.
This is the solution we need.
We started talking with Doug, and he came out
to the Navo Nation, and then that's where
we started a collaboration.
DOUG RINCKES: A plus code is just a reference to a location
based on a GPS coordinate.
Just go to Google Maps, and tap blue dot,
and we'll display the plus code.
DALENE REDHORSE: Go out in the middle of nowhere,
and anywhere you stand, you have a plus code.
And that's what we're giving out to the community
to address them.
DOUG RINCKES: We're still learning
about what works, what changes we can make to just make
it easier for people to discover the codes,
and for them to use it.
SPEAKER 5: [INAUDIBLE] in Valley Fire.
This is a [INAUDIBLE]
SPEAKER 6: [INAUDIBLE] Valley Fire, go ahead.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
DOUG RINCKES: One of the most challenging problems
that they expressed to me is emergency response
time, especially ambulances getting to homes.
SUSAN HENDY: We had had several traumatic runs where
we didn't know the address.
And we had not been able to get to the person in time
to help save their life.
Had we gotten there sooner, possibly
we could have saved them.
DALENE REDHORSE: The experience I had with my mom,
we couldn't get an ambulance out to where we live.
So my mom lost a whole hour when she had a stroke.
I wouldn't want anybody to go through that.
SUSAN HENDY: While we're traveling to get in here,
it could already be importing the information we pull out
and it's there.
NORBERT NEZ: A lot of people are excited about using plus codes
and what the possibilities are.
SUSAN HENDY: If dispatch could just say,
look at the number on the house and tell me what
that number is, problem solved.
DALENE REDHORSE: [SPEAKING NAVAJO]
My son put up a plus code on social media
to inform people of where a ceremony is
going to take place.
We have people from everywhere, middle of Arizona,
at the other end of the reservation, show up.
DOUG RINCKES: We've heard of small businesses,
like [INAUDIBLE],, that publish their location using
a plus code so that people can find them
and they grow their business.
NORBERT NEZ: It's basically what we've
been looking for, something easy to use,
and it's available for everyone.
DOUG RINCKES: Ultimately, our hope
is to help them solve the problems that they face
locally, not just the ones that we think that they face,
and allow them to access the same kind of benefits
that a lot of us just take for granted as an effect of having
an address.
DALENE REDHORSE: I want my people to be visible.
Navajos are residents of the state of Utah.
This is our home.