Obamas to Visit National Parks -- You Should, Too

On Friday, the first family is scheduled to head out West for a weekend trip to Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Canyon.

Their trip is timed to highlight the National Park Service's "fee-free weekend" and to encourage all of us to get out and explore more of America's natural splendor.

This must be music to Shelton Johnson's ears. As a Yosemite National Park ranger, Johnson is one of the few black park rangers in America. He is frustrated that less than 1 percent of Yosemite visitors are black. Johnson's message is that connecting with nature changed his life, and it can do the same for other troubled urban kids.

"It's bigger than just African Americans not visiting national parks. It's a disassociation from the natural world," said Johnson, who has worked in Yosemite for the past 15 of his 22 years in the Park Service. "I think it is, in part, a memory of the horrible things that were done to us in rural America."

The rejection of the natural world by the black community, he said, is a scar left over from slavery.

"All Snoop Dogg has to do is go camping in Yosemite, and it would change the world," said Johnson, 51. "If Oprah Winfrey went on a road trip to the national parks, it would do more than I have done in my whole career."
Source: Park Ranger asks, "Where are the black visitors?" - SFGate.com

I get what he's driving at. Snoop Dogg might make camping seem cool to his young fans, while Oprah might convince folks that our parks are welcoming and safe. Reconnecting black people to nature is a personal matter for Johnson. Understanding the role of the Buffalo Soldiers in our early American history changed his life.

In 2001, [ ] ranger Johnson made the discovery that changed his understanding of the black experience. Deep in the Yosemite archives, he found a faded 1899 photograph of five U.S. Army cavalry troopers on horseback patrolling a pine forest deep in the Yosemite backcountry. The soldiers were African American.

He learned that, for three years, Army troops from the Presidio known as Buffalo Soldiers had patrolled Yosemite and Sequoia national parks. He became engrossed in their story, reading the soldiers' archived letters.

Johnson has since taken on the persona of one of the soldiers and tells the story of the Buffalo Soldier and his own Native American heritage to youth groups and tourists through that character. The musical presentations bring to life the forgotten history of the black American soldiers who essentially became America's first national park rangers. Source: Park Ranger asks, "Where are the black visitors?" - SFGate.com

I have visited Yosemite and the Grand Canyon, and I enjoy the peacefulness of camping. It's true. Take time to explore nature and you'll be transformed.

Interested in getting started outdoors? Check out www.OutdoorAfro.com.

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