The Joy Trip Project James Edward Mills

Give me a minute and let me tell you a story. From the beginning of its creation, the United States of America has been built upon the dedicated efforts of remarkable human beings. Our history is populated with the deeds and achievements of countless individuals whose contributions to the enduring legacy of our less than perfect union must be acknowledged. That includes those who identify as Black, Indigenous or Persons of Color.

In celebration of Black History Month, the Joy Trip Project is sharing a series of narratives that detail the contributions of Black Americans to our collective heritage as a nation. As part of a National Geographic Explorers Grant from the National Geographic Society and in cooperation with the National Park Service, this series details the stories of those pivotal characters and events in our past who are often overlooked, ignored or even hidden throughout our shared history.

Hosted by James Edward Mills, this series delivers each day in the month of February a compelling audio story via podcast in about 60 seconds. Each narrative offers a brief glimpse into the life and times of Black men and women who have shaped our cultural identity. The series is called The Unhidden Minute. I hope you’ll join us.

Please, subscribe today.

Immediately following my return from Washington D.C. - I mean on the flight home – I was inundated with kind words of support and condolences for the demise of the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree. Due to excessively high winds early in last week of November 2023, it is indeed true that the beautifully decorated holiday tree provided to the White House by the National Park Service sadly fell over. News reports in photographs showed the tree lying on its side. But as I graciously replied to each of these thoughtful notes, I found great comfort in the knowledge that the 63-foot Norway Spruce I had followed from the Monongahela National Forest of West Virginia to our nation’s capital, The People’s Tree, stood proudly on the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol Building.



















After being on the road for more than three weeks, I had hoped to ease into a glorious celebration of a job well done. Truthfully, that is exactly what happened. The successful harvest of my 9th U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree, with assistance of the U.S. Job Corps, was followed by a 19-stop tour through its home state with visits to communities large and small full of happy, smiling people. Called “wa’feem’tekwi” by the Shawnee Tribe, a word that means “bright shinning tree”, our enormous spruce was hauled by a Kenworth Truck on a 102-foot Hale trailer more than 1,300 miles by two skilled drivers of Werner Enterprises. After being unpacked by volunteer personnel at Joint Base Andrews and the dedicated professionals of the U.S.D.A Forest Service, the People’s Tree was delivered and decorated by the talented crew of the Capitol Grounds and Arboretum.

The ornaments, more 5,000 of them, were hand crafted from recycled materials by the children of West Virginia, many of whom are members of their local 4-H Clubs.  In a public ceremony the tree was set alight by Beverly Elementary School 4th grader Ethan Reese, who shared his family heritage as the great-great grandson of Arthur Wood, the Supervisor of the Monongahela National Forest in 1931. Now with thousands of L.E.D. lights, topped with a shinning star, this beautiful Christmas Tree stands as a gift to the American people as a symbol of our shared national heritage.



















As my American Airlines flight from Washington D.C. to my home in Madison, Wisconsin was delayed by almost eight hours I had plenty of time to write to friends and followers who were confused ove...

For those of us who really love bicycles, I think what we enjoy most is the sense of freedom we get from travel on the open road under our own power. This mechanical device allows us to engage both our minds and bodies to pedal long distances on just two wheels so that we can explore the landscape of the modern world. But through our journeys over lightly trafficked rural roads, as we roll past obscure old towns and villages, we can also reveal the compelling memories of the not-so-distant past. As a modern-day explorer, there's a man who rides a bike along gravel paths and asphalt highways across time and space and into the pages of history.



Erick Cedeño: My name is Eric Cedeño. Some people know me as the Bicycle Nomad.









JTP: For many years, Eric Cedeño has traveled thousands of miles by bicycle across North America. As a cyclist carrying his own gear from one town to the next, he reimagines the excitement and enthusiasm of human powered transportation toward the end of the 19th century. Back then, even the United States Army thought that the bicycle might change how human beings travel from place to place.



















Erick Cedeño: There was a big craze. People were going crazy about the bicycle, the technology, about the bicycle. And the army realized that they needed other methods of transportation to be successful. They only had the cavalry back then, and they knew that bicycles were cheaper than horses. Easier to maintain than a horse. They could go further than a horse could. And also, there were quite in battlefields. So they understood the power of the bikes and they wanted to adapt a bicycle corps.



















JTP: In 1896, U.S. Army Lieutenant James Moss came up with the idea to conduct an experiment to see if the bicycle could one day be used to replace the horse. In order to prove the concept, moss recruited a platoon of 20 soldiers.

Erick Cedeño: Fort Missoula, Montana, is where that was formed. Lieutenant Moss approached the Army and says, I have the perfect man to do this experiment. And he did. Luckily for him, he had the Buffalo Soldiers out of the 25th Infantry out of Fort Missoula.

























Erick Cedeño The Bicycle Nomad

photo by Josh Caffrey



















JTP: At the time, more than 30 years after the end of the Civil War, there were stationed there an all-Black unit of enlisted men known collectively as the Buffalo Soldiers. These men who fought the Plains Wars of westward expansion and sadly participated in the displacement of Native people, were given the opportunity for a peacetime mission into the American heartland. Led by Lieutenant Moss, a white officer. Over the next two years, from 1896 to 1897, the Buffalo Soldier Bicycle Corps would make three expeditions across the West. In 2022, Eric Cedeño retraced the route that they traveled from Fort Missoula, Montana, to Saint Louis, Missouri. The distance of more than 1900 miles. In the retelling of their story through physical reenactment, the Bicycle Nomad takes us on a journey back in time. In his travels following the path of the Buffalo Soldiers, Cedeño not only celebrates the accomplishments of black Americans from our past, but also inspires further exploration of our history that is too often overlooked. I'm James Edward Mills, and you're listening to The Joy Trip Project.











Title photo by Josh Caffrey

The protection of public land requires the broad ranging vision and leadership of federal service professionals at the highest levels. As the 19th Director of the National Park Service Charles F. Sams III is guiding the management of a complexed agency that oversees the protection of 63 National Parks and more than 420 individual monuments, battlefields, lakeshores and grasslands. A member of the Confederate Tribes of the Umatilla Indians, Sams is the first Native American to serve as the administrator of the memorial sites that preserve our natural history and enduring national heritage.



After a long career in the U.S. Navy in times of both war and peace as well as the creation of career opportunities for aspiring stewards of the natural environment, Sams now dedicates his commitment to public service by encouraging the next generation of National Park Rangers. By building a corps of passionate interpreters to effectively tell a more comprehensive story of our culture as a united people, he’s a helping to pave a diverse and inclusive pathway of preservation well into the future.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]





"You're never going to meet a more passionate group of people who are dedicated to mission than the National Park Service Rangers and their staffs out there," Sams said. "And what they really need is a leader who will advocate for them to ensure they have the funding so they can can go about doing the preservation of flora and fauna and telling America stories."

In recent months since the passage by Congress of the Great American Outdoors Act, also known as GAOA, there are new opportunities to affirm the priorities of natural resource and heritage protection through the National Park Service. By permanently providing financial resources for the Land And Water Conservation Fund, the federal government is poised to make profound investments in the people and places that define our identity as a nation. Now that he’s coming to the end of his first year on the job, I had the chance speak to Sams and have him reflect upon his tenure so far as well as the role that the NPS can play in the shaping our way forward.

I’m James Edward Mills. And you’re listening to, The Joy Trip Project.

























National Park Service Director Charles Sams (Middle) stands with Mosaics In Science Interns at the U.S. Department of the Interior Building in Washington D.C. (photo by James Edward Mills)



















JTP Well, first of all, thank you very much for taking the time to to chat with me and to share a little bit about your experience in the management of public land. My first question is a very basic one. Tell me where you from and how you how you got to the position that you're in now.

Sams So I'm from Oregon originally. I was born in Portland, Oregon, but raised on the Umatilla Indian Reservation in northeast Oregon, right along the Umatilla River, which was feeds into the big river, which is now known as the Columbia, that we know as the Necheewana. And I very fortunate to grow up in a very well-educated household. My parents had attended and graduated junior college, which was very rare to have two native parents who had actually not only attended, but graduated. And so education has always played an important part and also a freeing of oneself by having a good education.

When the folks at the Public Broadcasting Service went looking for a charismatic personality to host their latest documentary film series on the natural world, they reached out to a man with just the right skills to bring the outdoors into every home in America.



Baratunde: My name is Baratunde Thurston. I am a multimedia storyteller operating at the intersection of race, technology, democracy and climate. Because I love this planet.



The wild. There's nothing quite like the feeling of stepping outside. And breaking free from the modern world. I'm in northern Minnesota, on the edge of a lake that resembles an ocean. In places like this, it's easy to see nature as something so powerful, so vast.



















We could never leave a real mark on it. But our footsteps are almost everywhere these days. And while knowing that can weigh you down, it can also lift us up and inspire us to change.

JTP: The show airs on PBS television stations nation-wide. And like its host, the program explores those points of connection where the outdoors and the human experience come together for fun, adventure and environmental conservation. Each episode introduces viewers to remarkable people and places from one end of this great nation to other. In advance of the premiere of this amazing new series I had the chance to talk to Baratunde Thurston and get an inside look into America Outdoors.



































 









































The PBS Series America Outdoors is coming to your favorite Public Television station. Check your local listings for dates and times near you. Baratunde Thurston is the author of the book “How to be Black” and he’s the host the “How to Citizen” Podcast. You can learn more about him and all his amazing work at Baratunde.com





















Our Music comes courtesy of Artlist featuring the talents of The Cliff



 The Joy Trip Project is made possible thanks to the support of the Schlecht Family Foundation and the National Geographic Society. You can follow along on this and other journeys through history at Joytripproject.com.

















































If you enjoyed this episode, please drop me a note in the comments or better still write a revi...

On May12, 2022, history was made as the first team of Black American climbers successfully ascended to the summit of Mount Everest, the highest peak in the world. Known as the Full Circle Everest Expedition, this group of six men and one woman, all of African descent, made it safely to the top of the mountain and back to Everest Base Camp. The team included an array of climbers from across the United States and one native of Kenya. They ranged in age from 26 to 62. And they achieved this great accomplishment with the invaluable assistance of eight Nepali Sherpa guides. At a moment in time when even the most remote corners of our planet seem well within reach of human endeavor and ambition, this unique expedition is the latest milestone not only in the progress of high-altitude mountaineering, but the global advancement of racial diversity, equity and inclusion in the outdoor recreation industry.









Almost 70 years since the first formally recognized ascent of Everest in 1953 by Sir Edmond Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, Black Americans have at last realized the metaphorical vision that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. defined in his many speeches that encouraged the aspiration to climb mountains. In was in August of 1963, the same year that the first American team led by Jim Whittaker reached the Everest summit, that King shared his dream at the March on Washington and declared that freedom for all people must be allow to “Ring From Every Mountainside”



















But throughout the Civil Movement of the 1960’s and well into the 21st Century, it would take more than 50 years for the feat of a successful Everest ascent to be achieved by Black South African climber Sibusiso Vilane on May 26, 2003. Three years later, Sophia Danenberg of Seattle, Washington, became the first Black American climber to reach the summit of Everest in 2006. In the time since, of the many thousands of people who have made it to the top, only six have been Black. And more than 15 years after that first ascent by Vilane, it is only now that a team of Black Americans have been assembled, trained and financed with the support of commercial sponsors and nonprofit donors to finally ascend as a community to the most prestigious mountain top on the planet. With the Full Circle Everest Expedition, the number of Black climbers to ascend to the summit has now more than doubled!

The story behind this ground-breaking accomplishment is the culmination of the many decades of effort on the part of diversity, equity and inclusion advocates who recognize the importance of creating recreational spaces and opportunities that are welcoming and accessible to all people. To truly understand how we got to this particular moment in our history I believe it’s necessary to take a close look into the lives of those individuals who are intimately a part of it. Among the seven climbers on the Full Circle Everest Expedition team who reached the summit is Demond "Dom" Mullins. I just happen to reach him in Nepal over the WhatsApp messaging platform while ...