Coloring In the History of Yosemite
YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK — The granite peaks, turbulent waterfalls and pristine backcountry here always brought veteran ranger Shelton Johnson joy and profound peace. Still, a sense of isolation accompanied him like a brother.
Johnson is one of just two black rangers on Yosemite's largely white staff of 100. And since African Americans participate in outdoor recreation less than any other group, he greets black visitors only rarely. As a black man in a wilderness career, Johnson often felt alone. Until one day four years ago.
Seated in Yosemite's sweet-smelling research library, Johnson happened upon a grainy photograph. Staring at him from across a century of silence were five black soldiers on horseback, somewhere in Yosemite.
What Johnson discovered that afternoon were his progenitors, segregated black Army troops who patrolled California's national parks around the turn of the last century -- fighting fires and policing rogue sheepherders, poachers and timber harvesters.
"When you stumble across an image that gives you roots, suddenly it's Alex Haley time," said Johnson, a 44-year-old interpretive ranger. "It changed the whole way I looked at myself and at the park
Gazing at the dark and solemn faces, Johnson resolved to unearth their neglected story. Through its telling, he could give black visitors a sense of pride in the park.
"I knew right then that I could use the history as a doorway to bring African Americans into wilderness parks," said Johnson, who likens the discovery to a linguist tripping over the Rosetta Stone.
Today, Johnson no longer walks by himself. With him is his alter ego -- a spirited soldier whom Johnson created from a blend of fact, fiction and his own family history. Through Sgt. Elizy Boman, whose name comes straight from the historical record, Johnson speaks for the so-called Buffalo Soldiers.
U.S. Army soldiers patrolled Yosemite, Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks from 1890 until the creation of the National Park Service in 1916. In three of those years -- 1899, 1903 and 1904 -- the job was done by the 9th Cavalry and 24th Infantry, segregated black regiments dispatched on horseback from San Francisco's Presidio.
Commanding Presence
When Johnson burst into a classroom at the Central Valley's Atwater High School on a recent morning clutching faded leather saddlebags and an Indian flute, he was all Boman. Yellow chevrons flashed from the sleeves of his blue wool tunic. Crossed sabers graced his campaign hat. And in a powerful singsong voice, the commanding 6-foot-3 soldier told his tale.
