Snoop Dogg and Oprah: Come to Yosemite Says Ranger

Ranger Shelton Johnson in Yosemite National Park. Photo courtesy SFgate.com.

Shelton Johnson is famous for his portrayal of Yosemite’s first custodians, the Buffalo Soldiers. But now Shelton is speaking out to African American’s across the country, why aren’t you enjoying our national parks?

SF Gate: Nothing would make Shelton Johnson happier than the sight of Snoop Dogg singing by a campfire or Oprah hiking to the top of Yosemite Falls.

Johnson, one of a scarce few African American park rangers in the United States, said a black American celebrity publicly frolicking in the woods would do more to help people of color embrace their heritage than all the money in Hollywood.

Johnson, a musician, storyteller and interpretive specialist at Yosemite National Park, is determined to inspire young inner-city African Americans to experience what he says transformed his life. Less than 1 percent of the visitors to Yosemite are African American, a number he’s eager to improve.

“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.”