Buffalo Soldiers: The African Americans Who Won the West | Told by Kevin Frazier | History at Home

The Buffalo Soldiers, the African-American troops who helped win the West, but did you know they also served as some of America's first National Park Rangers? Yep, that hat that Smokey the Bear rocks? Well, it was modeled after the Buffalo Soldiers' headgear. This History at Home lesson is all about the Buffalo Soldiers and our National Parks. So let's jump back in time to 1866. The Civil War just ended and millions of African-Americans are hoping to start a new life of At the same time, Congress for the first time is allowing African-Americans to serve in the regular army, not as wartime volunteers, but actual peacetime soldiers. Six all-black regiments were formed to help rebuild the country, but more importantly, to help with westward expansion. The six regiments were eventually paired down to four, two cavalry and two infantry, and they were sent west of the Mississippi to help protect and assist with supply and mail routes and also guard against attacks from outlaws, Mexican revolutionaries like Pancho Villa, and Native Americans. Now this is where we get into the complicated history of the Buffalo Soldiers, because for the most part, these former slaves and free men were from the South, where opportunities were mainly limited to stuff like sharecropping or something akin to slavery. So joining the military was seen as a path to a better way of life, and incredibly, a few were actually able to parlay their service into a new start in the West. But for most, the long arms of racism were impossible to escape. So the fact that they served and serve valiantly is a testament to these men's courage and their convictions. Plus, there's also the irony that initially, many of the soldiers who had just escaped the cruelty of plantation life were fighting to place another group of people, Native Americans, in a somewhat similar situation on reservations. By the way, it was those same Native Americans that they fought and helped remove from their lands who came up with the name Buffalo Soldiers. Now, the actual troops didn't refer to each other as Buffalo Soldiers. They accepted the name, though, because they knew that the Native Americans respected and valued the animal. The Buffalo Soldiers would go on to fight and fight well in every major conflict until the army was finally desegregated in the 1950s. Now, that's a story in itself, which is well documented, but I want to talk about the part of their history that is often left out. The fact that the Buffalo Soldiers also served as some of America's first park rangers. All right, when the national parks were first created, nobody really thought it through that you'd probably need some people or some kind of service to administer the lands. Instead, they just said, you know what, let's let the army handle it. And they did. So in the spring of 1899, a group of Buffalo Soldiers who were stationed at the Presidio in San Francisco made the 16-day journey to Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks. Now, initially, most were veterans of the Spanish-American War and belonged to the 24th Infantry and the 10th Cavalry. Their duties included stopping poachers, evicting timber thieves, and fighting forest fires. They also were tasked with helping to create and build the infrastructure of the parks, roads, trails, and buildings that made the nation's new treasures accessible to people who wanted to visit. In 1903, Colonel Charles Young got involved. This is a man who could have been president if he had been born in a different time. Think Colin Powell before Colin Powell. Young was an exceptional leader and was just the third African-American to graduate from West Point. Now, when he was named the superintendent of Sequoia National Park, he was one of only four black officers in the entire army. Young and the Buffalo Soldiers in one summer transformed the entire park, building more roads than other troops had built in the previous three summers. Roads that allowed wagons to enter the giant forest for the first time, which is home to the world's largest trees. Here's the thing, these trails and roads are still being used today. As a matter of fact, the Buffalo Soldiers' scenic route in Sequoia National Park takes you through the edge of one of the largest and most beautiful groves of giant Sequoia trees on the planet. Oh, and let's go back to Smokey the Bear for a second in that hat. It was the Buffalo Soldiers who introduced that look with the pinch top or what was called Montana Peak to the national parks. See, the cavalrymen during the Spanish-American War and also during fighting in the Pacific found that squeezing the top of the hat kept water and other things from gathering. So maybe just maybe Pharrell was giving the Buffalo Soldiers a shout out when he rocked that Vivian Westwood hat at the Grammys back in 2014. Oh, and by the way, if you happen to make it to Yosemite, check out legendary ranger Sheldon Johnson's one-man play all about the Buffalo Soldiers. He is helping keep their legacy alive. I'm Kevin Frazier and this has been History at Home.