Buffalo Soldier Speaks: Recent Episodes
Jeffrey Trust
"A Buffalo Soldier Speaks" an audio podcast featuring National Park Ranger Shelton Johnson as Sergeant Elizy Boman, Troop "K", Ninth U.S. Cavalry, who was dispatched to Yosemite National Park in 1903 and served there through 1904.
Sgt. Boman talks about Time as its own sort of geography, that in the Sierra Nevada you can get lost in the when, the here and now, as easily as taking a wrong turn in the mountains.
Sgt. Boman continues this conversation about colored men who serve in the military, and their fight for freedoms that are elusive once they return from the battlefield.
Sgt. Boman tells of an encounter in Jerseydale that prompts him to consider some of the differences between being a colored soldier versus a white soldier in a time of war.
Sgt. Boman reflects on his status as a sergeant in the Ninth Cavalry and the meaning in his own life of the word power.
What's the power of beauty on the human spirit? Can a place be so beautiful that when we give ourselves over to that beauty we lose a part of ourselves? On a routine patrol Sgt. Boman encounters such a place.
After Sgt. Boman evicts a poacher from the park, he has a feeling that he may be the one who's being stalked.
Sgt. Boman has a birthday in Yosemite Valley and thinks about the family he has left behind in the South.
A routine patrol for Sgt. Boman and Cpl. Bingham becomes dangerous during a breezy day.
Sgt. Boman encounters trouble on an early Spring patrol in a high country still covered with snow.
Sgt. Boman tells of his first encounter with Charles Young, the first African American Superintendent of a national park.
Riding a horse in San Francisco is called transportation, but here in Yosemite can it become something much more liberating?
Sgt. Boman momentarily loses his bearings, and in the process finds himself completely.
In the wilderness, everyday things take on a much deeper meaning, even the wind has a voice.
Herding sheep is illegal in Yosemite, but not every illegal act is wrong. Sgt. Boman discovers that morality depends on one's point of view, especially in the mountains.
A sudden afternoon rain during Sgt. Boman's patrol through the mountains of Yosemite changes everything and nothing.
After a recent patrol through Slide Canyon, Sgt. Boman speaks about the power of Yosemite to so fully remember all that has happened in the past that the past continues to live on in the present.
Sgt. Boman speaks about the power of place on the mind, in particular the impact of Hetch Hetchy Valley. When something bad happens, does it leave an echo, a memory, does it leave a stain on an otherwise beautiful land?
Sgt. Boman reflects on the impact stillness has had on his life. Within that quiet he remembers the time he spent in the Philippine War, and how it lingers within him and with him on his patrols through a valley called Hetch Hetchy.
Sgt. Boman reports on what he feels about the meaning of family, contrasts the beauty of the place he patrols with the often painful nature of the duty he must perform.
Sgt. Boman's meditation on the mountains, and the price he has paid for spending too much time alone at the edge of the sky.
After a solitary patrol in the wilderness of Yosemite; the high country's atmosphere makes a mark on Sgt. Boman, and lead him to thoughts about freedom.