Detroit students follow the path of the Buffalo Soldiers in Yosemite
WDET reporter Sascha Raiyn accompanied Detroit students to Yosemite National Park to document their outdoor adventures.
Detroit high school students visited Yosemite National Park in July 2024 to camp, hike, rock climb and explore the history of Buffalo Soldiers in National Parks.
The Sierra Club’s Detroit Outdoors program sent a group of Detroit high school students to Yosemite National Park in July. They went to meet Shelton Johnson — a Detroit native, Cass Tech grad, Yosemite park ranger and expert in the history of Buffalo Soldiers in the National Parks. The Buffalo Soldiers were Black Soldiers who fought in the Civil War. They later became some of the first park rangers.
The Detroit Outdoors program is a collaboration between the Sierra Club, the city of Detroit, the YMCA of Metro Detroit and local organizations that serve youth.
The partnership began with the re-opening of Scout Hollow at Rouge Park — the only campground within Detroit’s city limits. It has grown to include programs that get students outdoors for skiing, hiking, camping and rock climbing throughout the state and around the country. The Detroit to Yosemite trip is just one of the excursions the organization has offered to students this summer.
Listen: Garrett Dempsey on Detroit to Yosemite
The trip coincided with the celebration of National Buffalo Soldiers Day on July 28. I accompanied the students as they traveled to Yosemite to camp, hike and rock climb.
Cass Tech grad found happiness in school’s Outdoor Adventure Club
Detroit Outdoors supports student-led Outdoor Adventure Clubs in schools in Detroit and Hamtramck.
Madelane Martinez is a recent graduate of Cass Tech and the outgoing president of the school’s Outdoor Adventure Club. She was one of the students who visited Yosemite. Martinez says the program and its staff helped her develop a deep love of the outdoors and for climbing.
Listen: Madelane Martinez says she ‘found happiness where she didn’t know to look for it’ in Outdoor Adventure Club
Connecting Black and Brown youth to the outdoors
There were eight students, two teachers and five outdoor trip leaders who traveled from Detroit to Yosemite. But Black and Brown people who work in the outdoors through variety of roles came from Alaska, Colorado and California to spend time with the students.
Phillip Henderson is the executive director of Full Circle Expeditions and has been a leader in mountaineering for three decades. He traveled to Yosemite for the trip and spoke with WDET after the youth had spent the day rock climbing and rappelling.
Listen: Phil Henderson talks connecting Black and Brown youth with the outdoors
The History of the Buffalo Soldiers in Yosemite
The trip was timed to fall on National Buffalo Soldiers Day on July 28. The students spent that day with Shelton Johnson, the park service’s foremost expert on the history of the Buffalo Soldiers.
Johnson is a native Detroiter and a graduate of Cass Technical High School.
He’s been a Yosemite park ranger for nearly 35 years. Johnson didn’t discover the story of the Buffalo Soldiers in the national parks.
“The history discovered me,” he said.
Johnson explained that Black rangers at the park before him began collecting and telling the stories of African American and other soldiers of color who first protected Yosemite. But Johnson was able to expand that history, identifying hundreds of soldiers who served there. He informed the students that the story of the Buffalo Soldiers serves as a legacy that connects people of color not only to the national parks, but to a fundamental relationship with nature.
Listen: Yosemite Park Ranger Shelton Johnson shares the history of the Buffalo Soldiers
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