Americans cherish the image of the rugged, "against-all-odds" individual. We have many: cowboys, pioneers, explorers, seafarers, mountain men, and military men. Their images are everywhere from advertising to countless movies and television shows. And almost always - in our minds, in print, and on our screens - those images are white.

The truth is different. There was and is no activity, no era, no profession, no glory and no shame that has not included Americans of African descent. African Americans drove cattle, migrated westward and founded and settled entire towns. They led wagon trains over the plains, fought in all of the Indian Wars, and explored with Lewis and Clark. African Americans have been whalers, presidents of banks and owners of slaves. They have been farmers, poets, and gold miners. African Americans fought for both sides in the Revolution. From the Revolution to Viet Nam, they have died for a country that seemed to want them in war, but not at home.

Yet, as history is written and fictionalized, these Americans are often overlooked. Surely John Wayne knew as he was making his many westerns that there had been black cowboys The era was barely over! Surely Teddy Roosevelt and the press knew that black 'Buffalo Soldiers' were there at San Juan Hill. This side of history is rarely glorified on the screen, and scarcely taught in our classrooms. It is as if, with the exception of slavery and the fight for civil rights, these Americans of African descent are invisible.

Throughout the United States, the National Park Service celebrates many of the less-told stories of these Americans. They were there too.

Here are the stories.